Sexual Trauma and Combat During Deployment: Associations with Suicidal Ideation among OEF/OIF/OND Veterans

Compelling evidence has emerged on the association between military sexual trauma and suicide attempt; however, research investigating how sexual trauma during deployment relates to suicidal ideation has received considerably less attention and has yielded mixed findings. Furthermore, such research has not accounted for other types of trauma that may occur during deployment. 

Our objectives were to examine whether sexual trauma during deployment was associated with recent suicidal ideation, adjusting for exposure to combat. Our sample included 199 Operation Enduring Freedom/Iraqi Freedom/New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND) veterans entering inpatient trauma-focused treatment who completed the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (Beck & Steer, ) and the Deployment Risk and Resilience Inventory Sexual Harassment and Combat Experiences Scales (King, King, Vogt, Knight, & Samper, ). 

Deployment-related sexual trauma was significantly associated with recent suicidal ideation, adjusting for age and gender and additionally for combat. 

These findings underscore the importance of assessing for deployment-related sexual trauma when assessing suicide risk in OEF/OIF/OND veterans in inpatient settings.

Via: http://ht.ly/Sa2x8 

By: Monteith LL1,2, Menefee DS3,4, Forster JE1,5, Wanner JL3,4, Bahraini NH1,2,6.

• 1Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 19 Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC), Denver, Colorado, USA.
• 2Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
• 3Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, VISN 16 MIRECC, Houston, Texas, USA.
• 4Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
• 5Department of Biostatistics and Informatics, Colorado School of Public Health, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
• 6Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, USA.