Window For Military Suicide Attempts Researched

NBC reports most soldiers who attempt suicide haven't even been deployed yet. Researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, of more than 163,000 men and women in the Army found the period of highest risk was just two months after starting military service. In fact, the study found that 61 percent of those who tried to take their own lives had not yet been deployed. Two months into first joining the service, soldiers are usually just finishing basic training. The findings suggest it might be times of transition, rather than the ongoing strain of combat and long deployments, that stress veterans the most. But the findings also don't line up precisely with data on actual completed suicides — something that military psychiatrists need to work harder to understand, especially since suicides hit record rates among U.S. service members in recent years.