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Transgendered veterans are significantly more likely than their non-transgendered counterparts to commit suicide, according to a new study.

New research reveals that veterans who have been diagnosed with transgendered status are significantly more likely to experience suicidal thoughts and attempt suicide.

The latest study involved data from the VA National Patient Care Database from 2000-2009. Lead researcher John Blosnich, PhD, MPH and coauthors from VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System and University of Pittsburgh (PA), University of Rochester (NY), VA Central Office (Washington, DC), East Tennessee State University (Johnson City, TN), and VISN2 Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention (Canandaigua, NY), found that he suicide death rate among veterans with transgendered-related diagnoses was similar to the suicide death rate of veterans suffering serious mental illness like depression or schizophrenia.

"Although this study suggests comparably elevated rates of suicide among veterans with transgender-related ICD-9-CM diagnoses and veterans with any psychiatric diagnosis, suicides among transgender veterans occurred at a younger age, resulting in greater potential years of life lost," LGBT Health Editor-in-Chief William Byne, MD, PhD, James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx, NY and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, said in a journal release.

"VA has a multifaceted strategy to reduce suicide among veterans. Its commitment in 2011, and reaffirmed in 2013, to provide respectful transgender-specific healthcare as well staff training in transgender cultural awareness and sensitivity may also address the high suicide rate among transgender veterans," Byne concluded.

The findings were published in the journal LGBT Health.