Research Highlights
VA, DoD join forces to study military suicide
The VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System is part of a new consortium set up by the Army to mesh military and civilian research efforts on suicide prevention.
Peter Gutierrez, PhD, of the Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center at the Denver VA Medical Center, will co-direct the Military Suicide Research Consortium. Some of his recent studies have focused on suicide among those with traumatic brain injury. In one study, published in July 2010 in the Journal of Personality Assessment, his team evaluated the usefulness of various clinical questionnaires in assessing suicide risk among TBI patients.
"Assessing risk for suicide has been the focus of extensive research in the civilian sector. However, very little is currently known about how relevant existing tools are when applied to the military" says Gutierrez. "The consortium will allow us to determine how best to screen and assess personnel, develop effective interventions and ultimately reduce suicides."
Co-directing the group with Gutierrez will be Thomas Joiner, PhD, of Florida State University. According to Joiner: "Soldiers see a lot of violence, they see death, they see the people who are closest to them in the world get killed, and they themselves are often seriously injured. There's no doubt that the trauma of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq plays a role, but that doesn't explain why some soldiers take their own lives and others who share the same experience don't."
Gutierrez's and Joiner's institutions will each receive $8.5 million over three years from the Army to further their research, with a particular emphasis on suicide in the military. Army officials say they expect the consortium to bolster the evidence base for policy recommendations and clinical practice guidelines.
This article originally appeared in the December 2010 issue of VA Research Currents.