Stimulus piece

Suicide is a leading cause of death for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. Carroll, Currier, and McCormick (2017) wanted to investigate the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (also known as ACE's) and suicide rates among war veterans.  The research is important because it could serve as a predictor of PTSD-related suicide among military veterans.

The sample was made up of 217 veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. All participants had been accepted to a residential PTSD program for veterans located on the West coast of the United States. All participants had a diagnosis of PTSD and had been in out-patient treatment, which had proven to be unsuccessful. Participants that suffered from psychosis, alcoholism or drug addiction, or long-term medical conditions were excluded from the sample.

Three questionnaires were used to gather data. The questionnaires were given in the first two weeks of treatment.  Felitti et al's (1998) ACE Questionnaire measured exposure to childhood abuse, household dysfunction (e.g. parental divorce, family mental illness or domestic violence) and neglect. The responses were either a "yes" or "no" answer. They were also asked to complete the Combat Experiences Scale which quantified the level of stressors that they experienced in combat. Finally, they were given a two-item questionnaire in which they were asked, "Have you ever had serious thoughts of committing suicide?" and "Have you attempted suicide in your lifetime?" All data was anonymized using a coding system.

The findings were that 83.4% of the veterans reported at least one ACE. 41.5% had experienced four or more ACEs. 71.9% had serious thoughts of committing suicide and 38.7% indicated that they had attempted suicide. For every additional stressor on the ACE questionnaire, the veterans' risk of attempting suicide increased by 24%. When looking at individual ACEs rather than composite scores, the researchers found that physical neglect played the most significant role in predicting suicide attempts. Veterans that reported physical neglect in childhood were 4.55 times more likely to report a history of suicide attempts, than in cases where no physical neglect was reported.