A new comprehensive study of 3.9million military personnel who served after 9/11 has found no direct link between deployment to a war zone and elevated suicide rates. Researchers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Washington, concluded that military suicides may be more likely after members leave the service than during active duty deployment, particularly if their time in uniform is brief. ‘It was certainly intuitive as the wars went on and suicides went up for people to assume that deployment was the reason, but our data show that that is too simplistic; when you look at the total population, deployment is not associated with suicide,’ said lead author Mark Reger. New study: Researchers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord looked at military records of 3.9million personnel who served after 9/11 and found no direct link between deployment to a war zone and elevated suicide rates . Matter of honor: Service members with a dishonorable discharge were about twice as likely to commit suicide as those who had an honorable separation . The four-year study, the largest of its kind, was published Wednesday in the Journal of American Medicine Association Psychiatry. While the US military has traditionally experienced lower suicide rates than the civilian population, suicides among active duty service members have surged in the past decade, almost doubling in the Army and the Marines Corps, Reger said. In 2012, Pentagon reported 320 suicides by active-duty service members; another 268 soldiers took their lives last year. To understand the relationship between deployment and self-inflicted death, researchers reviewed military records for more than 3.9million active-duty soldiers and reservists who joined up between October 7, 2001 and December 31, 2007. A total of 31,962 deaths occurred, including 5,041 suicides, by December 31, 2009. Suicide rates were similar regardless of whether or not servicemen and women were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. The study did not factor in veterans’ exposure to combat and the potential effect of traumatic events on the battlefield on suicide rates. There were 1,162 suicides among those who deployed and 3,879 among those who didn't, representing suicide rates per 100,000 person-years of 18.86 and 17.78, respectively. Leaving the military significantly increased suicide risk, however, with a suicide rate of 26.06 after separating from service compared with 15.12 for those who remained in uniform. At home and abroad: Suicide rates were similar regardless of whether or not servicemen and women were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan . Those who left sooner had a greater risk, with a rate of 48.04 among those who spent less than a year in the military. Service members with a dishonorable discharge were about twice as likely to commit suicide as those who had an honorable separation. ‘This is the first time such a huge, comprehensive study has found an increased suicide risk among those who have separated from service, particularly if they served for less than four years or had an other than honorable discharge,’ said Rajeev Ramchand, a researcher in military mental health and suicide prevention at Rand Corporation who wasn't involved in the study. It's possible that pre-deployment examinations may screen out people who have mental health problems, making those who deploy several times a healthier, more resilient group, said Dr. Alan Peterson, a psychologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio who specializes in combat-related post traumatic stress disorder. ‘Those who really struggle with a deployment don't go the second time,’ said Peterson, a retired military psychologist who wasn't involved in the study. ‘Early separation from the military is often a marker for something else.’ For those contemplating suicide, access to firearms can exacerbate the problem, Peterson said. ‘It's a risk factor that sometimes gets overlooked, but we've seen when they don't have access to weapons they are less likely to kill themselves.’ Leaving the military significantly increased suicide risk, and those who left after just one year were most vulnerable . Some service members who leave the military early may have had risk factors for suicide such as mood disorders or substance abuse problems that contributed to their separation, particularly if they had a dishonorable discharge, said Dr. Christine Moutier, chief medical officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. It isn't realistic to expect former service members to instantly reintegrate into their former civilian lives, but they may be experiencing serious mental health problems if they're not eating or sleeping or if they're extremely agitated or irritable, Moutier said. ‘The lack of an association between deployment and suicide risk isn't surprising,’ she said. ‘At a very high level, these findings highlight the need for us to pay closer attention to what happens when people leave the military.’
Researchers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord concluded military suicides may be more likely after members leave service than during deployment .
The four-year study looked at military records of 3.9million service members from October 7, 2001 to December 31, 2007 .
Total of 31,962 deaths occurred, including 5,041 suicides, by December 31, 2009 .
There were 1,162 suicides among those who deployed and 3,879 among those who didn't .
Soldiers with a dishonorable discharge were twice as likely to commit suicide as those who had honorable discharge .