Increased Risk Of Suicide Among Veterans With Bipolar Disorder

Increased Risk Of Suicide Among Veterans With Bipolar Disorder.
Military veterans with psychiatric illnesses are at increased danger for suicide, says a novel study. The greatest peril is among males with bipolar disorder and females with substance malign disorders, according to the researchers at the US Department of Veterans Affairs and Healthcare System and the University of Michigan. Overall, bipolar muddle (the least common diagnosis at 9 percent) was more strongly associated with suicide than any other psychiatric condition.

The researchers examined the psychiatric records of more than three million veterans who received any breed of protection at a VA facility in 1999 and were still alive at the beginning of 2000. The patients were tracked for the next seven years.

During that time, 7684 of the veterans committed suicide. Slightly half of them had at least one psychiatric diagnosis. All of the psychiatric conditions included in the scan - depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, fabric imprecation disorders, post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) and other ache disorders - were associated with increased risk of suicide.