The largest and most comprehensive study on veterans who sought treatment for depression in the governments health care system was conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs and University of Michigan. The joint effort detailed records from more than 800,000 veterans, including troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, revealed that veterans receiving treatment for depression are no more likely to take their own lives as compared with civilian patients.
The study yielded 1,683 suicides in all, a rate of less than one-quarter of one percent far lower than some past estimates. However, experts cautioned against applying the findings too widely, because most former servicemen and women with mental health problems do not seek treatment in the Veterans Affairs system.
Contrary to most studies of non-veterans, the risk of suicide generally goes up with age, the highest rate among those ages 18 to 44, but dropped about 20 percent for those ages 45 to 64, and then rose again after that.
Paradoxically, the research suggested that those who had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as depression were at significantly lower risk of...
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