More members of the United States military committed suicide in 2012 than died on the battlefield, the American Medical Association said Monday.
The association is encouraging physicians throughout the nation to focus on mental health issues when seeing veterans in their offices.
"The number of deaths determined by the military to be suicides in 2012 was 349," the AMA said, a 16-percent increase from 2011 and nearly double the rate at the beginning of the past decade, when the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began."
The suicide rate among returning military personnel is a recent phenomenon, the AMA said.
During World War II, the AMA said, the suicide rate was lower during the war than it was when the U.S. was at peace.
The AMA said it is working with the Veterans Administration to improve examination of veterans.
It participates in the White House Joint Forces Initiative and has links on the AMA website to sources for both the public and medical personnel to learn more about health problems prevalent among veterans.
"The AMA is committed to connecting physicians with information, tools and training materials to help assess and treat our nation’s veterans and their families," the association said.
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