Younger White Male Veterans At Increased Risk Of Suicide

Main Category: Veterans / Ex-Servicemen
Also Included In: Anxiety / Stress;  Depression
Article Date: 30 Oct 2007 - 16:00 PDT

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Male veterans are three times more likely than female veterans to commit suicide. Also, whites have a much higher rate of suicide compared with patients of other races.

Researchers examined associations between demographic and clinical characteristics and risk of suicide among veterans treated for depression in the Veteran's Health Administration (VA) system. Out of 807,694 veterans included in the study, 1,683 - or 0.21 percent - committed suicide during the study period. Data suggests that the rate of suicide among male veterans is three times higher than the rate among female veterans, less than the 4:1 ratio reported for the general population. In addition, the rate of suicide among whites was 95.01 per 100,000 person-years, much higher than the 27.08 per 100,000 person-years for blacks and 56.17 per 100,000 person-years for other races. Younger veterans aged 18-44 had moderately higher suicide rates than did middle-aged patients aged 45-65 and modestly higher rates than elderly patients (94.98, 77.93 and 90.06 per 100,000 person-years, respectively). Surprisingly, veterans diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) had a lower rate of suicide than those without PTSD.

"These findings can help identify depressed veterans at greatest risk of suicide, allowing providers in the VA health care system to more closely monitor these patients and can provide policy-makers with valuable information about high-risk veterans," the study's authors said. [From: "Suicide Mortality Among Individuals Receiving Treatment for Depression in the Veterans Affairs Health System: Associations with Patient and Treatment Setting Characteristics." Contact: Kara Gavin, kegavin@umich.edu.]

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