Citation

Brown LA, Zhu Y, Coon H, Young-McCaughan S, Fina BA, Dondanville KA, Hernandez AM, Litz BT, Mintz J, Maurer DM, Kelly KM, Peterson AL, Bryan CJ, Williamson DE. J. Psychiatr. Res. 2023; 160: 163-170.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jpsychires.2023.02.009

PMID

36804111

Abstract

Military service members are at increased risk for suicide, but there are few strategies for detecting those who are at highest risk after a deployment. Using all available data collected from 4119 Military service members before and after their deployment to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom, we tested whether predeployment characteristics clustered together to predict postdeployment suicidal risk. Latent class analysis showed that three classes best characterized the sample at predeployment. Class 1 had significantly higher scores on PTSD severity pre- and postdeployment than Classes 2 and 3 (Ps < .001). At postdeployment, Class 1 also had a greater proportion of endorsement of lifetime and past year suicidal ideation than Classes 2 and 3 (Ps < .05) and a greater proportion of lifetime suicide attempts than Class 3 (P < .001). Class 1 also had a greater proportion of endorsement of past-30-days intention to act on suicidal thoughts than Classes 2 and 3 (Ps < .05) and past-30-days specific plan for suicide than Classes 2 and 3 (Ps < .05). The study showed that based only on predeployment data, it is possible to determine which service members might be at highest risk for suicidal ideation and behavior at postdeployment.

Language: en

Keywords

*Military Personnel; *Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic; Active duty military personnel; Humans; Iraq; Iraq War, 2003-2011; Latent class analysis; Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); Risk Factors; Suicidal behavior; Suicidal ideation; Suicidal Ideation; Suicide, Attempted