Nearly 50% more U.S. veterans reported they had suicidal ideation in the last five years, according to a recent study done by the Yale School of Medicine and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Veteran Suicidal Thoughts Increased Over the Past Five Years
The study, which was published by the JAMA Network Open, took a look at responses from 2,636 veterans who participated in the 2025-26 National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study. Researchers working on the study found that 13.4% of veterans reported having suicidal thoughts within the last fortnight, compared with 9% in a similar survey that was conducted in 2019-2020.
More Veterans Are Thinking About Suicide, But Attempts Haven’t Increased
While the findings point to a higher suicidal thought rate in veterans, those thoughts have not carried over to higher rates of suicidal action or attempts. Researchers said that understanding this reason could help to shape future suicide prevention efforts as the veteran population continues to evolve.
“The veteran population has become younger, and there have been increases in the proportion of women veterans and shifts in its racial and ethnic composition over the past five years,” lead author Ian Fischer, a clinical psychologist at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, said in a Yale School of Medicine news release. “Making it essential to monitor changes in suicidal thoughts and behaviors and identify the veterans who may benefit most from prevention and early intervention.”
As suicide remains one of the leading methods of veteran death in the country, this study could shed some light on future prospective prevention campaigns. More than 100,000 veterans have died by suicide since 2001. In 2023, it was 6,398. According to the VA, veterans as a population suffer from death by suicide at a rate that is 60% higher than that of the general U.S. population.
VA Mental Health Care Reaches Many Veterans, But Gaps Remain
Also in the study, researchers took a look at how veterans use mental health therapy. Those who received primary care through the VA were about twice as likely to have received mental health treatment during their lifetime compared with those who did not utilize the VA system. More than half of those receiving treatment were in the form of mental health treatment.
Even so, the study found that fewer than 37% of veterans who reported suicidal thoughts during the previous two weeks were receiving mental health care.
“These findings suggest that the VA is playing an important role in connecting veterans at elevated suicide risk with mental healthcare,” co-author Brandon Nichter, a visiting scholar in Yale’s Department of Psychiatry, said in the news release. “At the same time, many veterans with recent suicidal thoughts are still not engaged in treatment. Expanding outreach and reducing barriers to care across both VA and community health systems will be essential to reaching these individuals.”
Who Is Most at Risk?
The recent study also found that younger veterans and women veterans were some of the highest in the sample to experience suicidal ideation. Differences between generations are difficult to measure because of factors like survivorship bias.
Researchers were also able to link different factors to suicidal thoughts and attempts. Major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and alcohol abuse are all high-risk factors to watch out for.
Another interesting tidbit found in the study is that veterans who served after the Sept. 11 attacks versus those who served before. This could be linked to greater exposure to combat-related experiences, but this is all speculative.
Several limitations were acknowledged by the authors of the study. The responses were self-reported, and therefore some veterans may have felt stigma to not report suicidal ideation. The survey excluded veterans in confinement or institutionalized, meaning that it may not fully reflect the full experiences or thoughts of a broader population size.
Based on the survey results, the researchers estimated that just under 2.5 million of the nation’s close to 16 million veterans experienced suicidal thoughts during the five-year span of the study.
Those in charge of the survey said that identifying veterans with multiple high-risk factors could be an effective way to prevent and educate those veterans from having suicidal thoughts, and more importantly, to prevent action on those thoughts. The researcher pointed to the need to connect veterans with proper treatment in order to avoid unspeakable tragedies.
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