Suicide in the military is the act of ending one's life during or after a career in the armed forces.
While suicide rates in military organisations vary internationally, official statistics in several countries show a consistently higher risk in certain subgroups.
In the United Kingdom (UK), young serving personnel are markedly more likely than older personnel and same-age civilians to end their lives.
The risk among former military personnel is higher than among either serving personnel or the general population, according to research in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the United States (US).
The risk is particularly marked among veterans who joined up at a young age.
Contrary to popular belief, deployment to a war zone has not been associated with an increased risk of suicide overall, according to research in Canada, Denmark, the UK, and the US.
Participating in, or witnessing killing and wounding, however, can increase the risk.
A study of the US army found that the career stage carrying the greatest suicide risk was not deployment, but
initial military training,
as a time of disorientation and stress.
Individuals most at risk of suicide during or after a military career include those who: had a
troubled childhood;
are of
low rank;
have
close-combat roles in war;
and/or leave service soon after joining.
Certain other known risk factors for suicide are common in military life, including
depression,
posttraumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...
,
alcohol misuse
Alcohol abuse encompasses a spectrum of unhealthy alcohol drinking behaviors, ranging from binge drinking to alcohol dependence, in extreme cases resulting in health problems for individuals and large scale social problems such as alcohol-r ...
,
bullying
Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imba ...
and
sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...
.
Variations in the suicide rate in military populations may also signify changes in the prevalence of related mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression, and histories of self-harm.
Incidence
Research from Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US indicates that suicide is a pervasive problem in military life, particularly after personnel leave, and that the youngest are most affected.
Serving personnel
In countries where data are collected, the rate of suicide among serving armed forces personnel varies widely. The table below presents rates among serving male personnel in the regular armed forces (i.e. excluding
reserve forces
A military reserve force is a military organization whose members have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional manpower. Reserve f ...
) of four countries, with comparisons to the general population.
Since most military personnel are male and suicide is a rare event, it is not usually possible to calculate a
statistically significant
In statistical hypothesis testing, a result has statistical significance when it is very unlikely to have occurred given the null hypothesis (simply by chance alone). More precisely, a study's defined significance level, denoted by \alpha, is the p ...
rate among female personnel. The large military of the US is an exception, where the suicide rate among serving female personnel in 2020 was 12 per 100,000.
Former personnel
Typically, former personnel are more likely than serving personnel to end their lives. The table below shows suicide rates among ex-armed forces personnel for three countries.
(The UK Ministry of Defence has announced that it will begin collecting and publishing official statistics on suicides in the ex-armed forces population from 2023.)
Research suggests that the period of maximum risk for those leaving the armed forces is in the years shortly following discharge: within two years in the UK and within four years in Canada.
Young personnel and veterans
Official statistics from Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US show that younger personnel face increased risks.
In the UK, for example, while the suicide rate among male serving soldiers overall was 57% lower than that in the general population between 2002 and 2021,
it was 31% higher among those under 20.
The graphs opposite illustrate the elevated risk in this youngest age group.
![Suicides_in_UK_armed_forces_by_age_group_1985-2020_(2)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Suicides_in_UK_armed_forces_by_age_group_1985-2020_%282%29.png)
The risk among young former personnel is markedly higher than that among civilians of the same age and to older veterans. In the UK, for example, those who enlist young have been found to face an increased risk of self-harm and suicide
after leaving the armed forces, relative both to older personnel and to their civilian peers. Compared with serving personnel of the same age, the suicide rate among young former personnel in the UK has been between two and three times as high, as is also the case in Australia.
In both countries and additionally in Canada, the relative risk of suicide among young former personnel is also consistently well above the rate found among civilians of the same age.
The table below shows the rate of suicide among the youngest age groups for which data are collected in three countries (note varying date ranges).
At-risk individuals and groups
![Barker_Barracks,_Sennelager,_Paderborn,_Germany_MOD_45156616](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Barker_Barracks%2C_Sennelager%2C_Paderborn%2C_Germany_MOD_45156616.jpg)
Individuals with experiences of distress are more susceptible to suicide. Certain such experiences are typically more common in the armed forces than in civilian life, according to research in various countries, including:
* Anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder;
* Relationship breakdown;
* Alcohol misuse and substance misuse;
* Bullying;
and
*
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...
.
Similarly, research has found that suicide risk if higher in certain military subgroups than others. In addition to those of young age, higher risk is conferred to serving and former personnel who are:
* In the army (versus navy and air force);
* Of
low rank;
* In close-combat roles such as the infantry;
* Traumatised by a troubled childhood;
and/or
* Leaving service in the first few years,
particularly if dismissed against their will.
Military risk factors
Deployment
Contrary to common assumption, deployment to a war zone (unless in a direct combat role) has not been associated with an increased risk of suicide, according to research in Canada, Denmark, the UK, and the US.
When considered overall, US veterans of the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
and
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
,
for example, and British veterans of the 1982
Falklands War
The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...
and 1991
Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
,
have not been more likely to end their lives as a consequence of their deployment.
However, common deployment experiences of certain military groups, such as those with
close-combat roles like the
infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...
, do carry additional suicide risks. For example, research in the US has found that specific types of traumatic war experience add to the risk, including killing and injuring others, or witnessing the same.
Even so, most suicide attempts in the US army are by personnel who have never been to war.
According to one large study, US infantry soldiers who had never been deployed were twice as likely to end their lives as those who had.
Initial training
![Recruit_being_trained](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Recruit_being_trained.jpg)
A study of the US army found the peak period for attempted suicide not to be during or after deployment, but
initial training,
a time of prolonged psychological coercion, disorientation and stress.
It identified three career-stage points when suicide attempts were most likely, namely early in initial training, late in a first operational tour, and a few months after homecoming. Of these, initial training was the period of greatest risk, with a rate of attempted suicide four times as high as that found during a first deployment.
The graph below presents the study's results.
Pre-military adversity
Some research further suggests that the childhood background of military personnel may play a role in increasing the average suicide risk during and after military life.
In the UK, for example, the army enlists new soldiers disproportionately from economically deprived neighbourhoods, where
adverse childhood experiences Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) encompass various forms of physical and emotional abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction experienced in childhood. The harms of ACEs can be long-lasting, affecting people even in their adulthood. ACEs have ...
(ACEs) are more common. Since ACEs bear a strong relationship both to stress-related mental health problems such as anxiety and depression,
and to self-harm and suicide,
this accounts in part for the additional mental health burden found in military populations recruited largely from economically marginalised communities.
Since adolescents with an adverse childhood background are relatively susceptible to the toxic effects of prolonged stress,
some health professionals have argued that the coercive
resocialisation involved in initial military training may load a particularly heavy psychological burden on these younger recruits, as may any traumatic war experiences later.
Protective factors
In countries where suicide rates among serving personnel as a whole are lower than among civilians, a frequently proposed explanation is the
healthy worker effect
The healthy user bias or healthy worker bias is a bias that can damage the validity of epidemiologic studies testing the efficacy of particular therapies or interventions.
Specifically, it is a sampling bias or selection bias: the kind of subject ...
.
This refers to the relatively strong health of people in employment versus the general population, a portion of whom are not economically active. The healthy worker effect may be particularly pronounced in military populations, which are selected for mental health before enlistment.
[{{Cite web , last=Ministry of Defence , date=8 June 2021 , title=Information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, ref. FOI2021/05259 , url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1043942/20210608-FOI05259_MedicalRequirements_MentalHealth-Response_Redacted.pdf , url-status=live , access-date=30 August 2022 , website=gov.uk] After enlistment, personnel may further benefit from a relatively active lifestyle, conveying an additional health advantage over the general population.
These protective factors may be lost on leaving the armed forces, however.
See also
*
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
*
Military recruit training
Military recruit training, commonly known as basic training or boot camp, refers to the initial instruction of new military personnel. It is a physically and psychologically intensive process, which resocializes its subjects for the unique deman ...
*
Sexual harassment in the military
Sexual harassment in the military is unwanted sexual behaviour experienced as threatening, offensive, or otherwise upsetting, which occurs in a military setting.
Sexual harassment is more common in military than civilian life. Military women ex ...
*
Deaths at Deepcut army barracks, UK
*
: Military personnel who committed suicide
References
Military life
Suicide
British Armed Forces
Canadian Armed Forces
Australian Defence Force
United States Army
United States Air Force
United States Marine Corps
United States Navy
Veterans' affairs
Military