Hospitalized soldiers suicide rate increases.

• Position: Psychology

Army soldiers hospitalized with a psychiatric disorder have a significantly elevated suicide risk in the year following discharge from the hospital, according to research from the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS). The yearly suicide rate for this group is 263.9 per 100,000 soldiers, compared to 18.5 suicides per 100,000 in the Regular Army for the same study period.

The researchers, led by Ronald C. Kessler, professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., looked at data from the 12 months following a hospital discharge for more than 40,000 anonymous Regular Army soldiers (fulltime soldiers excluding Army National Guard and Army Reserve) who served on active duty from 2004-09.

The Army's suicide rate began increasing in 2004, exceeded the rate among a similar group of U.S. civilians in 2009, and has remained high through 2014. This study of administrative data shows that 40,820 soldiers (0.8% of all Regular Army soldiers) were hospitalized with a psychiatric disorder from 2004-09. Suicides occurring in this group during the year after a hospital discharge accounted for 12% of all Regular Army suicides during this period.

It also was found that it is possible to identify smaller, higher-risk...