Study: military suicides not connected with deployment

Suicide has become one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. military.

Over the last decade, more than 2,700 active duty service members have taken their own life - and that number is continuing to rise.

American service men and women face unique stresses, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Some people have thought these deployments have been increasing the risk of suicide,” said Cynthia Leard Mann of the Naval Health Research Center.

“In the last year, there’s been approximately one death per day on average due to suicide among our active duty force,” said Nancy Crum-Cianflone, director of the Millennium Cohort study team.

Researchers examined 22 risk factors, including the number and length of deployments, combat experience, rank and mental health disorders such as manic depression, depression and alcohol misuse.

“There was actually no relationship between deployments in support of the current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the subsequent occurrence of suicide,” said Crum-Cianflone.

Male service members had twice the risk for suicide than female service members, but this same trend also exists in the general population.

"The majority of suicides happened among people who never deployed in support of the current operations,” said Crum-Cianflone.

Mental health screening and effective treatment are vital in decreasing the risk of suicide.