This is Scientific American 60 Second Science.

I'm Cynthia Graber.

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On average, every day one active duty member of the military and 22 veterans commit

suicide.

And from 2005 to 2009, Army suicide attempts and suicides rose sharply.

In an attempt to figure out how to focus early interventions,

a team of researchers has pulled together data from various

Army databases to analyze nearly 10,000 attempted suicides of active duty Army personnel.

The first major point they make is that enlisted soldiers not officers attempt suicides at higher rates

Enlisted soldiers represent about 83% of the army but make up nearly 99% of the suicide attempts

narrowing in on the data, the researchers determined that females were more than twice as

likely as males to attempt suicide.

Also at higher risk, soldiers who entered the army at age 25 or older,

and suicides were higher for those who'd never been deployed

or those who were home from deployment

than for those who are currently deployed.

Suicides were highest in the first two years of service,

particularly the first year, and among soldiers who attempted suicide,

more than half had received a mental health-related diagnosis

in the previous month.

The study is in the journal Jama Psychiatry. One limitation of the study the researchers acknowledge is that it only includes data from the Army's own health care system

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