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Suicide after Leaving the UK Armed Forces —A Cohort Study
BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined suicide risk in individuals once they have left the military. We aimed to investigate the rate, timing, and risk factors for suicide in all those who had left the UK Armed Forces (1996–2005). METHODS AND FINDINGS: We carried out a cohort study of ex-Armed Forces...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Public Library of Science
2009
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2650723/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19260757 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000026 |
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author | Kapur, Navneet While, David Blatchley, Nick Bray, Isabelle Harrison, Kate |
author_facet | Kapur, Navneet While, David Blatchley, Nick Bray, Isabelle Harrison, Kate |
author_sort | Kapur, Navneet |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined suicide risk in individuals once they have left the military. We aimed to investigate the rate, timing, and risk factors for suicide in all those who had left the UK Armed Forces (1996–2005). METHODS AND FINDINGS: We carried out a cohort study of ex-Armed Forces personnel by linking national databases of discharged personnel and suicide deaths (which included deaths receiving either a suicide or undetermined verdict). Comparisons were made with both general and serving populations. During the study period 233,803 individuals left the Armed Forces and 224 died by suicide. Although the overall rate of suicide was not greater than that in the general population, the risk of suicide in men aged 24 y and younger who had left the Armed Forces was approximately two to three times higher than the risk for the same age groups in the general and serving populations (age-specific rate ratios ranging from 170 to 290). The risk of suicide for men aged 30–49 y was lower than that in the general population. The risk was persistent but may have been at its highest in the first 2 y following discharge. The risk of suicide was greatest in males, those who had served in the Army, those with a short length of service, and those of lower rank. The rate of contact with specialist mental health was lowest in the age groups at greatest risk of suicide (14% for those aged under 20 y, 20% for those aged 20–24 y). CONCLUSIONS: Young men who leave the UK Armed Forces were at increased risk of suicide. This may reflect preservice vulnerabilities rather than factors related to service experiences or discharge. Preventive strategies might include practical and psychological preparation for discharge and encouraging appropriate help-seeking behaviour once individuals have left the services. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-2650723 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2009 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-26507232009-03-04 Suicide after Leaving the UK Armed Forces —A Cohort Study Kapur, Navneet While, David Blatchley, Nick Bray, Isabelle Harrison, Kate PLoS Med Research Article BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined suicide risk in individuals once they have left the military. We aimed to investigate the rate, timing, and risk factors for suicide in all those who had left the UK Armed Forces (1996–2005). METHODS AND FINDINGS: We carried out a cohort study of ex-Armed Forces personnel by linking national databases of discharged personnel and suicide deaths (which included deaths receiving either a suicide or undetermined verdict). Comparisons were made with both general and serving populations. During the study period 233,803 individuals left the Armed Forces and 224 died by suicide. Although the overall rate of suicide was not greater than that in the general population, the risk of suicide in men aged 24 y and younger who had left the Armed Forces was approximately two to three times higher than the risk for the same age groups in the general and serving populations (age-specific rate ratios ranging from 170 to 290). The risk of suicide for men aged 30–49 y was lower than that in the general population. The risk was persistent but may have been at its highest in the first 2 y following discharge. The risk of suicide was greatest in males, those who had served in the Army, those with a short length of service, and those of lower rank. The rate of contact with specialist mental health was lowest in the age groups at greatest risk of suicide (14% for those aged under 20 y, 20% for those aged 20–24 y). CONCLUSIONS: Young men who leave the UK Armed Forces were at increased risk of suicide. This may reflect preservice vulnerabilities rather than factors related to service experiences or discharge. Preventive strategies might include practical and psychological preparation for discharge and encouraging appropriate help-seeking behaviour once individuals have left the services. Public Library of Science 2009-03 2009-03-03 /pmc/articles/PMC2650723/ /pubmed/19260757 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000026 Text en : © 2009 Kapur et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Kapur, Navneet While, David Blatchley, Nick Bray, Isabelle Harrison, Kate Suicide after Leaving the UK Armed Forces —A Cohort Study |
title | Suicide after Leaving the UK Armed Forces —A Cohort Study |
title_full | Suicide after Leaving the UK Armed Forces —A Cohort Study |
title_fullStr | Suicide after Leaving the UK Armed Forces —A Cohort Study |
title_full_unstemmed | Suicide after Leaving the UK Armed Forces —A Cohort Study |
title_short | Suicide after Leaving the UK Armed Forces —A Cohort Study |
title_sort | suicide after leaving the uk armed forces —a cohort study |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2650723/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19260757 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000026 |
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