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The Department of Defense is trying to protect veterans from themselves. Suicide rates among veterans are now higher than the general population.

More than 11-hundred US soldiers committed suicide from 2005 to 2009. That’s more than died in Afghanistan during the same period. The Department of Defense is giving Florida State University 17 million dollars to find out why the rate of suicide among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is higher than soldiers who fought in past US wars. FSU Psychology professor Thomas Joiner is heading up the research.

“Suicide rates have been somewhat lower in the military than in the general population, which make the trend that now it is starting to nudge ahead of the general population rate all the more worrisome,” said Joiner.

The research will last three years. The goal isn’t just to pinpoint the cause, but to also find a treatment.