U.S. Army Members and Suicide Risk

Among U.S. Military, Army Members Face Highest Suicide Risk

Firearms implicated in about two-thirds of cases, study finds

HealthDay – Not on Site

By Alan Mozes

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Suicide rates have been increasing among all active U.S. Navy, Air Force and Army personnel, but those in the Army appear to be most at risk, new research indicates.

An analysis of all U.S. military suicides between 2005 and 2011 revealed that the suicide rate among Army members was roughly double that seen among the second highest risk group, the Marines.

The investigation further revealed that guns are the principal cause of most military suicides. Firearms were implicated in more than 62 percent of all suicide cases that have a definitive cause of death, the study found.

"The trends in suicide are similar to what others have found," said study lead author Andrew Anglemyer, from California State University, Monterey Bay. "The differences in those rates between services are striking, though. Not only are most suicides in the active duty military among the Army personnel, but the suicide rate among Army personnel is the highest and has been every year since 2006."

Suicide was the 10th leading cause of death in the United States as of 2010. And the current investigation comes amid a rising suicide rate among military personnel throughout the last 15 years of continual war. In fact, the U.S. military has seen its overall suicide rate nearly double between 2001 and 2011, the researchers said.

Surprisingly, a separate report found that it wasn't the soldiers serving in combat positions who were most at risk of suicide. Since the Iraq and Afghanistan wars began, those in the Army at highest risk of a suicide attempt had never been deployed. In fact, that study found that two months into service was the riskiest time in terms of suicide. The report was released last month from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, in Bethesda, Md.

The latest study looked at suicides among all active-duty enlisted U.S. military personnel as recorded by the "Suicide Data Repository." This listing combines information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Death Index, and the Military Mortality Database.

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