CHARACTERISTICS OF SUBSTANCE-ABUSING VETERANS ATTEMPTING SUICIDE - A NATIONAL STUDY

Demographic, diagnostic, and service utilization characteristics of ve terans diagnosed with suicide attempt, substance dependence, both, or neither at discharge from Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) hospita ls in fiscal year 1994 (FY94) were compared using the DVA's discharge abstract database. Four groups of veterans were studied: (1) substance -abusing suicidal inpatients (n=1,459), (2) substance-abusing nonsuici dal inpatients (n=123,808), (3) nonsubstance-abusing suicidal inpatien ts (n=632), and (4) nonsubstance-abusing nonsuicidal inpatients (n=402 ,906). Substance-abusing suicidal veterans had higher rates of substan ce abuse than substance-abusing nonsuicidal veterans and mere more psy chiatrically disordered than nonsubstance-abusing suicidal veterans. S ubstance-abusing suicidal veterans had a higher mean number of inpatie nt treatment episodes and a larger proportion of discharges against me dical advice than the other three inpatient groups. Psychiatric and su bstance use disorders are more prevalent among substance-abusing suici dal veterans than among veterans with only substance use disorders or suicidal conduct.