Suicidal Thoughts Among Veterans on the Rise, Study Finds

Suicidal thoughts among US military veterans have increased sharply in the past 5 years, even as rates of suicide planning and attempts have held steady, a new cross-sectional, population-based study found.

From 2019/2020 to 2025/2026, surveys of veterans found the rate of suicidal thoughts over the past 2 weeks grew from 9.0% to 13.4% (a 49% relative increase; P < .001), Robert H. Pietrzak, PhD, MPH, of the National Center for PTSD, Veterans Affairs (VA) Connecticut Healthcare System/Yale School of Public Health, et al reported in JAMA Network Open. 

By contrast, lifetime suicide planning (8.0% vs 7.3%, respectively; P = .29) and suicide attempts (4.9% vs 3.9%, respectively; P = .048) were similar for 2019/2020 as they were for 2025/2026.

The findings suggest that “the risk of suicide in veterans may be increasing rather than decreasing despite an enormous emphasis on clinical and research programs focused on suicide prevention over the past decade,” clinical psychologist Alan L. Peterson, PhD, director of the STRONG STAR Consortium at the University of Texas at San Antonio, who was not part of the study, told Federal Practitioner. 

Despite these findings, however, another researcher who studies veteran suicide said the study findings are not particularly alarming when considered in their context.

“There was no significant corresponding increase in the more serious suicidal behaviors that were measured – suicidal planning and attempts,” psychiatrist Charles Hoge, MD, colonel (retired), US Army, and former Director of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, told Federal Practitioner. Hoge said the findings should not “raise serious alarm bells.”

Suicide Among Vets Has Risen 

Suicide remains among the leading causes of death for US veterans, accounting for > 6000 deaths per year. Overall rates have reportedly increased since 2001. 

In 2019, suicide was the second-leading cause of death among all Veterans Health Administration (VHA) users aged 25 to 34 years; only accidents caused more deaths. For veterans aged 35 to 44 years, suicide was the second-leading cause of death among men (behind accidents) and the third-leading cause among women, trailing accidents and cancer. 

In veterans aged 45 to 54 years, suicide was the fourth-leading cause of death among both sexes.

The new study reported weighted data from the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study, which conducted an online survey of 2636 patients from December 16, 2025, to January 12, 2026. The mean age was 62.4 years; 88.5% patients were male; 12.8% were non-Hispanic Black, 7.8% were Hispanic and 74.6% were non-Hispanic White; and 27.3% used the VHA as their primary health care system.

Veterans aged 18 to 44 years were more likely to have suicidal thoughts (29.9%) than those aged 45-64 years (14.3%) and aged ≥ 65 years (7.6%). Lifetime suicide planning and attempts were also more common among patients aged 18-44 years (16.5%) than those aged ≥ 65 years (3.3%).

Women were more likely than men to have thoughts of suicide within the past year (20.0% vs 13.3%, respectively), to have planned suicide in their lives (17.1% vs 6.8%, respectively), or made attempts in their lives (11.1% vs 4.1%, respectively).

Inside the Treatment Gap

The study also found that in the 2025/2026 sample, 53.8% of veterans with recent suicidal thoughts whose primarily used VHA care were receiving mental health therapy. Only 25.8% of individuals receiving primary care elsewhere were getting therapy. 

Study coauthor John H. Krystal, MD, professor and chair, Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, explained that a “knowledge gap” is an explanation for why many veterans who are suicidal are not being treated. “People are familiar with terms like ‘depression’ and ‘PTSD,’ but they do not always quite understand how these terms relate to them,” he said. 

Other factors include stigma, a mistaken idea that people can “tough it out,” and lack of awareness of mental health therapy’s effectiveness, Krystal said. “People may feel terribly, but they may not have hope that treatment would make them feel better.”

Why Did Suicidal Ideation Rise?

The study did not explore why suicidal thoughts were more common in 2025/2026 than 2019/2020. Peterson speculated that “the increased suicide risk in females and younger veterans may be a reflection of this newest generation of veterans who deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and surrounding locations. These deployments included a higher percentage of females than ever before, and many served in combat-related military occupations or in locations where there were significant risks related to recurrent mortar and rocket attacks.”

Another reason Hoge said it is important to consider the context of the findings is because the question about suicidal thoughts over the past 2 weeks is broad and answers may vary considerably comparing one period to another 6 years earlier: “The measure itself, which comes from a commonly used depression screener, was not exactly the same between the 2 surveys, and thus not directly comparable.”

No study funding is reported. Krystal reports multiple and various disclosures. Other authors, Hoge, and Peterson have no disclosures.