Wartime Killing May Raise Veterans’ Thoughts of Suicide

MONDAY, April 23 (HealthDay News) — The experience of killing in
war is strongly linked with suicidal thoughts, according to a study of
U.S. veterans of the Vietnam War.

Researchers analyzed data from a survey of a nationally representative
sample of Vietnam War veterans and found that those with more killing
experiences were twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts as those with
fewer or no experiences of killing.

The experiences of killing included enemy combatants, prisoners,
civilians in general, or women, children or the elderly.

The association between killing and suicidal thoughts remained even
after adjusting for variables such as post-traumatic stress disorder,
depression, substance use disorders and combat exposure.

The study, recently published online in the journal Depression and
Anxiety
, was led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center
and the University of California, San Francisco.

“The VA has a lot of very good mental health programs, including
programs targeting suicide prevention. Our goal is to make those programs
even stronger,” lead author Shira Maguen, a clinical psychologist at the
VA medical center and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the
university, said in a medical center news release.

“We want clinicians and suicide prevention coordinators to be aware
that in analyzing a veteran’s risk of suicide, killing in combat is an
additional factor that they may or may not be aware of,” she added.

Currently, the mental health impact of killing is not formally
evaluated as part of VA or Department of Defense mental health treatments,
nor is it typically taken into consideration when assessing a veteran’s
risk of suicide, Maguen noted.

“We know from our previous research how hard it is to talk about
killing,” she said. “It’s important that we as care providers have these
conversations with veterans in a supportive, therapeutic environment so
that they will feel comfortable talking about their experiences.”

More information

The American Psychiatric Association has more about military mental health.

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes