Increased Risk Of Suicide Among Veterans With Bipolar Disorder

Increased Risk Of Suicide Among Veterans With Bipolar Disorder.
Military veterans with psychiatric illnesses are at increased peril for suicide, says a unexplored study. The greatest jeopardy is among males with bipolar disorder and females with substance revile disorders, according to the researchers at the US Department of Veterans Affairs and Healthcare System and the University of Michigan. Overall, bipolar upheaval (the least common diagnosis at 9 percent) was more strongly associated with suicide than any other psychiatric condition.

The researchers examined the psychiatric records of more than three million veterans who received any typeface of concern at a VA facility in 1999 and were still alive at the beginning of 2000. The patients were tracked for the next seven years.

During that time, 7684 of the veterans committed suicide. Slightly half of them had at least one psychiatric diagnosis. All of the psychiatric conditions included in the scrutiny - depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, essence manhandle disorders, post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) and other angst disorders - were associated with increased risk of suicide.

And "In men, the endanger of suicide was greatest for those with bipolar disorder, followed by depression, substance abuse disorders, schizophrenia, other uneasiness disorders and PTSD," the researchers wrote. "In women, the greatest risk of suicide was found in those with theme abuse disorders, followed by bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, PTSD and other anxiety disorders".

Since bipolar malady was most likely to be associated with suicide, "this makes bipolar disorder notably appropriate for targeted intervention efforts or attempts to improve medication adherence," the researchers wrote. The analyse found that many veterans with psychiatric conditions weren't identified by the VA health system.

So "This could be owing to stigma, which may have made individuals less meet to report their mental health symptoms to physicians, an power that could be more pronounced among men with military experience," the researchers wrote. "These findings highlight the value of improved identification, diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric diagnoses (particularly bipolar disorder, depression, possessions use disorders and schizophrenia) of all health care system users" whosphil.com. The analysis appears in the November issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.