Suicides between 2010 and 2014 in the German Armed Forces—Comparison of Suicide Registry Data and a German Armed Forces Survey

Willmund, Gerd; Hess, Julius H.; Helms, Christian; Wertenauer, Florian; Seiffert, Anja; Nolte, Almut; Wesemann, Ulrich; Zimmermann, Peter

doi:10.1111/sltb.12534

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…The loneliness identified in our study is one of the factors of suicidal risk in military personnel who took part in hostilities and during deployments (Willmund et al, 2019a). O'Donnell et al (2019) using data from the National Violent Death Reporting System of 1362 veteran suicides between the ages of 18 and 34 between 2005 and 2014, the researchers found that 15% of the veterans had signs of PTSD.…”

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confidence: 52%

“…The problem of non-combat losses due to suicides of military personnel is relevant for most of the armed forces of states participating in various armed conflicts. Increases in military and veteran suicide have been reported over the past decade in the US, UK, Germany and other countries (Bryan & Rudd, 2015;Smith et al, 2019;Willmund et al, 2019a). The significance of this problem and the desire to solve it are evidenced by the fact that the US Department of Defense initiated large-scale studies: a metaanalysis of scientific literature on the problem of suicide prevention among military personnel; the search for a conceptual model that can be used as the basis for understanding suicide in military units; development of postventive strategies with the implementation of clinical and practical guidelines (Pak et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…German researchers have determined that military personnel with no deployment experience are at twice the risk of committing suicide compared to those with more than one deployment experience (Willmund et al, 2019a). In addition, authors found that at risk among military personnel were single men older than 45 years old with a short service life (up to two years) and a low level of education.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The Main Factors and Personality Characteristics to Predict the Risk of Suicide by Military Personnel in Hostilities

Prykhodko

Matsehora

Kolesnichenko

et al. 2020

BRAIN

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The problem of non-combat losses due to suicides of military personnel is relevant for most of the armed forces of states participating in local armed conflicts. The posthumous pathopsychological study of materials from the investigation of suicides by Ukrainian military personnel made it possible to identify the main factors of committing suicides during the period of participation in hostilities in eastern Ukraine in 2014-2019: problems of adaptation to combat conditions; insufficient level of professional and psychological training to perform missions in combat conditions; acute stressful reactions to participation in hostilities; physical and mental exhaustion, demotivation; dysfunctional families; loneliness or breakup with a beloved woman; offenses and disciplinary actions; alcohol abuse. The main types of personality who committed suicide in different periods of hostilities were: in 2014-2016 "Demonstratively-Dependent", having two subtypes "Demonstratively-Maladaptive" and "Demonstratively-Masked"; in 2017-2019 "Asthenic-Depressive", which has two subtypes "Constitutionally-Weak" and "Exhausted-Demotivated". The manifestation of PTSD symptoms, physical and mental exhaustion, demotivation, indifference of society to the problems of veterans can significantly increase the risk of suicide in the postwar period. The division into periods of suicidal activity of servicemen suggests that the identified types (subtypes) of personality become suicidal only in extreme conditions with impaired adaptation and self-realization. The identified reasons for committing suicides and the typification of military personnel-suicides associated with different periods of participation in hostilities are not exhaustive.

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confidence: 52%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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The Main Factors and Personality Characteristics to Predict the Risk of Suicide by Military Personnel in Hostilities

Prykhodko

Matsehora

Kolesnichenko

et al. 2020

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“…Por ejemplo, en población general y clínica se ha identificado que los síntomas depresivos, diagnóstico de psicosis, antecedentes de intento de suicidio, problemas de consumo de sustancias y personalidad, trastorno del espectro autista, y entre otros problemas de salud mental, son indicadores de riesgo para el desarrollo de conductas suicidas (Probert-Lindström et al, 2020;Gili et al, 2019;Baños-Chaparro, 2021a;Baños-Chaparro, 2021b, Baños-Chaparro et al, 2021c. Del mismo modo, en las fuerzas armadas se ha evidenciado que el sexo masculino, estado civil soltero, edad mayor a 45 años, período de servicio menor a 2 años, un nivel bajo de educación, armas de fuego y diversos problemas afectivos, son factores de riesgo frecuentes en esta población (Ocampo-Ortega, 2020;Willmund et al, 2018;Baños-Chaparro, 2021d).…”

Section: Resultsunclassified

Importancia de cursos de prevención del suicidio en ciencias de la salud y fuerzas armadas

Baños-Chaparro

2021

Rev. Investig. Psicol.

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Introducción: las muertes por suicidio repercuten en las familias, los miembros de la unidad y la comunidad militar. Estudios recientes señalan los diversos factores de riesgo y prevalencia de conductas suicidas en miembros de las fuerzas armadas, como también la falta de capacitación en la prevención, evaluación, intervención y posvención del suicidio en los planes de estudios de ciencias de la salud. Objetivo: describir la importancia de incluir cursos de prevención del suicidio en ciencias de la salud y fuerzas armadas. Resultados: se enfatiza la relevancia de educación sobre las conductas suicidas, los principales apartados y contenidos en estudiantes de ciencias de la salud, la formación complementaria en estudiantes y miembros de las fuerzas armadas, y los beneficios de la formación en prevención del suicidio. En ese sentido, la evidencia empírica indica que la inclusión de cursos en los planes de estudio o la capacitación adicional para profesionales de la salud y miembros de las fuerzas armadas en prevención del suicidio son favorables para la sensibilización, construcción y fortalecimiento de conocimientos sobre las conductas suicidas. Conclusiones: existe interés y motivación para garantizar que la educación esté disponible para todos, dado que una formación adecuada permite un abordaje responsable, compasivo y basado en evidencias en beneficio de la comunidad.

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“…Compared to the German suicide study in the German Armed Forces from 2012 by Zimmermann et al [ 11 ], the present study identified similar characteristics of service members in a suicidal crisis. In an ad on study, the Centre for Military Mental Health (PTZ) in Berlin compared this study cohort with a healthy control group in order to better understand the risk factors for suicidal crises in service members [ 14 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suicidal behavior in German military service members: An analysis of attempted- and completed suicides between 2010 and 2016

Helms¹,

Wertenauer

Spaniol³

et al. 2021

PLoS ONE

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Studies identified service members of the United States (US) Armed Forces as a high-risk group for suicide. A significant increase in the suicide rate in the US Armed Forces was found in recent years. To date, there is no military suicide statistic available for the German Armed Forces. This study examined attempted and completed suicides in active service members of the German Armed Forces between 2010 and 2016 retrospectively, on the basis of archived personal and medical records in the central archives of the Medical Service of German Armed Forces. The primary goal was to establish a suicide-statistic for the German Armed Forces and to calculate and compare the suicides rates with the German population. Secondary every case’s data was analysed the groups of attempted and completed suicides were compared. 262 attempted suicides and 148 completed suicides were included in this study (N = 410). The suicide rates of the German Armed Forces peaked over the years 2014–2015 with a suicide rate of 15–16/100.000 active military service members and exceeded the civilian suicide rate in Germany of around 12/100.000 people during those years, although no general trend could be determined. These service members were mostly young men (attempted suicide 81.7%, completed suicide 99.3%), at the age of 17 - <35 years old (87% attempted suicide, 68,3% completed suicide), and were employed less than 6 years in the German Armed Forces (attempted suicide 72.9%, completed suicide 46.3%). Service members with attempted suicides belonged mostly to the military North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-rank-group for other ranks (lowermost military professionals) OR-1 –OR-4 (48.1%) or to the rank-group OR-6 –OR-9 in the group of completed suicides (34.5%). Only in about one third of cases a psychiatric diagnosis could be found in the records. Most frequent diagnoses were neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders (International Classification of Diseases Tenth Revision^ICD-10: F4) in 46.8%, and affective disorders (ICD-10: F3) in 43.3% of all cases. In the majority of cases there were signs for potential stressors in the private sector (attempted suicide 90.6%, completed suicide 82.6%). No typical risk factors which would enable a specific prevention could be identified in this analysis. Therefore, should preventive strategies be aiming at a multi-level intervention program.

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Suicides between 2010 and 2014 in the German Armed Forces—Comparison of Suicide Registry Data and a German Armed Forces Survey

Cited by 8 publications

References 21 publications

The Main Factors and Personality Characteristics to Predict the Risk of Suicide by Military Personnel in Hostilities

The Main Factors and Personality Characteristics to Predict the Risk of Suicide by Military Personnel in Hostilities

Importancia de cursos de prevención del suicidio en ciencias de la salud y fuerzas armadas

Suicidal behavior in German military service members: An analysis of attempted- and completed suicides between 2010 and 2016

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