United States military veteran suicide

The United States military veteran suicide epidemic is an ongoing phenomenon regarding a reported high rate of suicide among U.S. military veterans, in comparison to the general public.

Background
6,500 former military personnel killed themselves in 2012.

In 2013, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs released a study that covered suicides from 1999 to 2010, which showed that roughly 22 veterans were committing suicide per day, or one every 65 minutes. Some sources suggest that this rate may be undercounting suicides. A recent analysis found an suicide rate among veterans of about 30 per 100,000 population per year, compared with the civilian rate of 14 per 100,000. However, the comparison was not adjusted for age and sex.

The total number of suicides differs by age group; 31% of these suicides were by veterans 49 and younger while 69% were by veterans aged 50 and older. As with suicides in general, suicide of veterans is primarily male, with about 97 percent of the suicides being male in the states that reported gender.

In 2015, the Clay Hunt Veterans Suicide Prevention Act passed in the Senate and was then enacted as on February 12, 2015.

Causes
A study published in the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine found that, "Combat veterans are not only more likely to have suicidal ideation, often associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, but they are more likely to act on a suicidal plan. Especially since veterans may be less likely to seek help from a mental health professional, non-mental-health physicians are in a key position to screen for PTSD, depression, and suicidal ideation in these patients."

The same study also found that in veterans with PTSD related to combat experience, combat-related guilt may be a significant predictor of suicidal ideation and attempts.

Craig Bryan of the University of Utah National Center for Veterans Studies said that veterans have the same risk factors for suicide as the general population, including feelings of depression, hopelessness, post-traumatic stress disorder, a history of trauma, and access to firearms.

Critique
Critics of this reporting such as author Tim Worstall claim that there is no epidemic when comparing similar demographic cohorts in the civilian population. He points out that since vets are predominantly male, the suicide rate to compare to is not the general civilian rate, but the rate for males