Suicide attempts higher for veterans on campus

Suicide attempts higher for veterans on campus
By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – College students who served in the military have a suicide attempt rate six times higher than the average college student, suggests research presented today at a meeting of the American Psychological Association. It found students who are veterans also report thinking about suicide or planning their death at significantly higher rates.

Researchers with the National Center for Veterans' Studies at the University of Utah surveyed 525 veterans, average age 26. Almost all (98%) had been deployed in either Iraq or Afghanistan and 58% to 60% reported experiencing combat.

Nearly half (46%) of the 415 men and 110 women studied reported having had suicidal thinking sometime in their lives; 20% had suicidal thoughts with a plan. That compares to 2010 data from the American College Health Association, which showed 6% of college students reported seriously considering suicide.

Suicidal thinking with a plan is considered a serious suicidal risk, says lead author M. David Rudd, a psychologist at the Utah center, who presented the study.

"That's more than triple the general student population," he says. "There's been an enormous amount of research on veterans in general, but not veterans on campus."

The veteran survey also found that 7.7% reported a suicide attempt, compared to 1.3% of college students overall who reported attempting suicide.
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Suicide attempts higher for veterans on campus

Original
Veterans in college six times more likely to attempt suicide

Utah scholar calls suicide risk among student vets ‘alarming’

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Research led by psychologist David Rudd, the dean of the University of Utah's College of Social and Behavioral Science, has found that student veterans are at far greater risk for suicide and severe psychological disorders than the general student population.

BY BRIAN MAFFLY
The Salt Lake Tribune
Aug 04 2011
After returning home to Utah from the Iraq war and a year-long hospital stay to recover from major injuries, Brad Chidester sat in college classrooms surrounded by other young people and felt utterly alone. His combat experience made it impossible to relate to the seeming frivolity of undergraduate life at Dixie State College.

"They are enjoying their life and you don’t feel like you belong anymore. Life was different for me," said Chidester, 28, who lives in the central Utah town of Fountain Green. There were times in college when Chidester felt he couldn’t go on, before he was admitted to a hospital to begin treatment for his psychological injuries. He is among the near-majority of college student veterans whom scholars now believe have experienced suicidal feelings.
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Utah scholar calls suicide risk among student vets alarming