Introduction: National Guard members face unique challenges of psychological trauma and rapid transitions between military and civilian life. These challenges may partially explain Guard members' increased likelihood of developing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and higher suicide rates compared to other military and civilian populations. These challenges may prompt the use of dissociation and alcohol to cope, which can exacerbate PTSD symptoms and increase tolerance of painful experiences, such as suicide. Despite these connections, the interplay among dissociation, alcohol, PTSD symptoms, and suicide capability in Guard members remains unknown.
Methods This study assessed how dissociation and alcohol use may indirectly explain the relationship between PTSD symptoms and acquired suicide capability in 144 Guard members. Two alternative models, including psychological reactance and depression, were tested to assess model fit.
Results: Using Structural Equation Modeling, we found that PTSD severity related to acquired suicide capability through dissociation and alcohol use. The base model had a significantly better fit than the alternative models.
Conclusion: This work could contribute to necessary research on why Guard members are disproportionately affected by suicide. The results of this study may have implications for suicide prevention and intervention strategies among Guard members with PTSD symptoms, alcohol use, and dissociation.

Background: Current literature on age-specific risk factors for suicide in older adulthood is lacking. One risk factor for younger-life suicide, rumination, has not been extensively studied in older adults, but from prior research, may be more relevant to late-life vs. early life suicide. The current study investigated how multiple subtypes of rumination (i.e., brooding, reflection, and anger rumination) relate to suicidal ideation and recent suicidal behavior in late life.
Methods: 378 participants aged 50–90 (mean age 63.4, SD 7.5) were recruited into a case-control study examining suicide in older adults. Participants were recruited into three groups: 1) depressed adults who had made a recent (past two years) suicide attempt, 2) those with depression but no suicide attempt, and 3) a healthy comparison group. Among depressed groups, we examined relationships between rumination types, trait anger, depression, and suicidal ideation. Then, we conducted logistic regression to test which variables were related to having made a suicide attempt in the past two years among those with current suicidal ideation.
Results: All forms of rumination were related to depression. Brooding was related to ideation severity, but only depression severity related to presence of ideation. Anger rumination and ideation severity each contributed unique variance in their prediction of recent suicide attempts.
Limitations: Our cross-section design does not allow for causal claims; future studies should consider using ecological momentary assessment approaches.
Conclusions: Treatments to decrease rumination without an intense cognitive component should be considered for late-life patients.