Military deployment doesn’t increase suicide risk: studies
Experts want longer-term analysis of combat’s effects on mental illness
Gemma Karstens-Smith,
Ottawa Citizen
11 August 2013
OTTAWA — A soldier who has witnessed the tragedies of war firsthand while deployed overseas is not at a greater risk of suicide than a civilian, two new studies suggest.
The number of men active in the Canadian Forces who killed themselves between 1995 and 2012 was lower than the suicide rates of Canadian men, says a March 2013 Surgeon General report on suicide in the Canadian Forces.
“The finding that CF suicide rates are lower than the general Canadian population rates is not surprising as CF personnel are a screened employed population and would be expected to have lower rates of suicide as well as lower rates of other medical problems,” the authors wrote.
Using data from the Canadian Forces and Statistics Canada, the report’s authors compared suicide rates among current soldiers in the regular Canadian Forces who had and had not been deployed overseas to suicide rates among the Canadian population. The report did not look at suicide rates among veterans or reservists.
After comparing the data, the report’s authors concluded that there is no relationship between history of deployment and suicide risk.
The idea that deployment increases suicide risk comes from people trusting anecdotes and stereotypes over data, said Col. Rakesh Jetly, a Canadian Armed Forces psychiatrist and the senior mental health adviser to the Surgeon General.
“We have a Hollywood version of soldiers deploying, coming back broken, using drugs, abusing their wives, killing themselves — that’s the depiction of it,” Jetly said. “That’s the stereotype and maybe there are people like that, but we have data that shows the vast majority don’t have that.”
A study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association reached a similar conclusion about deployment and the risk of suicide.
Conducted by researchers at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, the study used data from the National Death Index and the Department of Defense’s Medical Mortality Registry, as well as used surveys conducted for the Millennium Cohort Study, which tracks the health of thousands of service members, to look at suicide rates in the U.S. military between July 1, 2001, and Dec. 31, 2008. The data included men and women in the regular forces and the reserves, some of whom were still active and others who were no longer serving in the military.
Suicide rates among active-duty U.S. military personnel rose from about 10.3 per 100,000 persons in 2005 to 16.3 per 100,000 persons in 2008, and the trend was attributed by some researchers and media to deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the new study refutes that link.
“The findings from this study are not consistent with the assumption that specific deployment-related characteristics, such as length of deployment, number of deployments, or combat experiences, are directly associated with increased suicide risk,” the authors wrote.” Instead, the risk factors associated with suicide in this military population are consistent with civilian populations, including male sex and mental disorders.”
However, some experts caution that deployment can lead to mental illness.
“Depression is a huge risk factor in suicide and certainly combat experience does contribute to that,” said Dr. Zul Merali, president and CEO of the Institute of Mental Health Research at the University of Ottawa.
More work needs to be done to get a fuller picture of the long-term effects of deployment on mental illness and suicide risk, Merali said.
“Combat exposure, or a number of exposures, may not directly have an impact (on suicide risk) but that’s not to say these things are not going to come back to haunt you later on.”
Allan English, an expert in military and veteran’s health at Queen’s University, said the Canadian report is an excellent snapshot of current military personnel, but more research is needed on reservists and veterans to get a full picture on how deployment, combat and stress effect mental health.
“Before, I think, we can make the conclusion that deployments or combat doesn’t affect suicide rates or mental health rates, we better do the follow up stories on the veteran populations in a systematic way,” English said.
Other studies such as the 2011 report “Canadian Forces Cancer and Mortality Study: Causes of Death” have looked at the long-term health of serving and released military personnel, Jetly said.
The study followed people who served in the Canadian Forces between 1972 and 2006, monitoring their health and causes of death.
In terms of suicide, the study found similar results to the March 2013 report, with a few exceptions, such as men who served for less than 10 years and were released for involuntary or medical reasons, Jetly said.
The Canadian Forces has one of the most intensive approaches to suicide prevention and investigation in the world, Jetly said, sending a team to investigate every confirmed suicide of Canadian Forces personnel. The results of the investigation help determine trends and shape policy and protocol, Jetly said.
The Canadian Forces have made progress in addressing mental illness, English said, adding that there is still work to be done.
He emphasized that appropriate resources are needed for the programs helping military personnel living with mental illness.
“It’s fine to have them in theory, but if they’re not properly resourced, this could be a contributor towards suicide rates and other bad outcomes,” English said.
or let them go on vacation halfway through a combat tour which is quite possibly the stupidest policy ever and no way to fight a war. Their is a whole lot of things we need to do better and I can think of a bunch off the top of my head:
