Younger Veterans at Greater Suicide Risk

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That findings are at odds with suicide trends among the general population, where younger depressed people are typically at lower risk than older individuals, the researchers said.

Zivin said the finding for veterans "wasn't what we expected, and our data doesn't allow us to figure out why that happened." She also said the finding should serve as a heads-up to doctors that a veteran's youth does not make him or her any less of a risk for suicide -- and might even add to the risk.

Dr. Marcia Valenstein, senior author of the study and an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, added, "Clinicians have to be aware that they can't simply rely on the predictors of suicide in the general population -- in this depression treatment population, it is the younger individuals who are most at risk rather than the older individuals."

Another surprise finding was that a diagnosis of PTSD actually helped protect veterans against suicide. Depressed veterans with PTSD had a suicide rate of about 68 per 100,000 person years, the study found, while the rate was much higher in veterans without the disorder -- almost 91 suicides per 100,000 person years.

That finding was also a bit of a puzzle, Zivin said. She speculated that PTSD may encourage affected depressed veterans to more readily seek out psychiatric care.

Another expert agreed.

"The VA system is now much more accepting of looking out for, and hearing about, PTSD -- it's on the tip of everyone's tongue," said Dr. Charles Goodstein, a psychiatrist at the New York University Medical Center and professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine.

Compared to depression, PTSD "has become a more acceptable set of symptoms with which a person can present himself," said Goodstein, who is also a co-founder of a nonprofit, free mental health outreach program aimed at veterans called The Soldiers Project (www.thesoldiersproject.org).

"So, both the doctor's antenna is up [for PTSD], and the vet is more likely to be able to bring it to the doctor's attention, because there won't be such a stigma connected to it as there might be with depression," he said. As the PTSD patient receives needed care, his or her risk for suicide should decline, Goodstein said.