A longitudinal cohort study of older veterans found that a history of military sexual trauma (MST) is associated with increased risk for any suicide attempt and death by drug overdose in both women and men, especially those who also have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

According to the authors, these findings are a call to action for policies and practices that reduce sexual trauma in the military. The study is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

In the first study of its kind, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco studied a national longitudinal cohort of 5,059,526 veterans aged 50 or older to determine the association between MST and risk for suicide, overdose, and related mortality later in life. The researchers stratified the study cohort by gender and MST exposure and examined whether PTSD modified the effect of MST on suicide and drug overdose death risk.

The researchers found that MST was associated with an increased risk for any suicide attempt and death by suicide in both genders. The risk of suicide attempt was three times higher among men and women who had experienced MST compared to those who did not experience MST.

The cumulative incidence of any late-life suicide attempts by women and men with MST was six and 12 percentage points higher than those who did not experience MST. Although MST similarly increased the risk of suicide and overdose death for both genders, MST was more than 10 times more common among women than men.

MST was associated with an over 60% increased risk of death by drug overdose in both genders. The findings also showed that for both men and women veterans with PTSD, MST was associated with a higher risk for suicide attempt and nonfatal attempt compared to those who only had PTSD.