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Studying suicide risk among vets
UB researcher John Violanti, a specialist in suicide among police officers, is preparing to conduct a study on suicide risk among returning veterans as the U.S. Army last week reported a “stunning spike” in the number of soldiers taking their own lives.
Violanti is testing a computer-based psychological “task” that measures how quickly persons associate feelings of self-harm as a way of detecting “under the radar” suicidal thought.
“I feel that military personnel will not readily admit suicidal thoughts,” Violanti says. “This new test gets to real feelings at a subconscious level. It is called IAT (Implicit Association Testing) and was developed at Harvard.
“Suicide among returning veterans is a big problem,” he adds. “On their psychological evaluation when they return, there is only one question on suicide—“Are You Depressed?” Who is going to answer that?”
Violanti is a Vietnam veteran and a former member of the New York State Police. As a research associate professor in the School of Public Health and Health Professions, he has studied suicide among police officers and the effects of policing on officers' health.
According to the Army’s report last week, the number of soldiers who committed suicide in January could be as high as 24, which would be the highest monthly total since the Army began collecting data on suicides and may be more than the number of soldiers killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan during the month.
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