Reasons for frequent suicides among American military personnel are primarily due to gay sex, depression and alcoholism than battle stress, a new study has claimed.
Despite universal access to healthcare services, mandatory suicide prevention training, and other preventive efforts, committing suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. military in recent years.
Beginning in 2005, the incidence of suicide deaths in the U.S. military began to increase sharply.
Earlier, stress and unfavourable combat deployment were cited as factors responsible for suicides.
Cynthia A. LeardMann, M.P.H., of the Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, had conducted a study to identify and quantify factors associated with suicide risk in a large population of current and former U.S. military personnel from all service branches.
Between 2001 and 2008, there were 83 suicides among participants in the study.
Also Read
According to the study, factors significantly associated with increased risk of suicide included male sex, depression, manic-depressive disorder, heavy or binge drinking, and alcohol-related problems.
The authors found that none of the deployment-related factors, like combat experience, cumulative days deployed, or number of deployments, were associated with increased suicide risk in any of the cases.
The study has suggested that knowing the psychiatric history, screening for mental and substance use disorders, and early recognition of associated suicidal behaviors combined with high-quality treatment are likely to provide the best potential for mitigating suicide risk in military personnel.