While the military has poured more money into suicide research than any other sector of American society in recent years, certain targets in dire need of study remain under-funded, according to a RAND Corp. report released Monday.

Researchers sampled opinions of leading suicide experts within the military and on the RAND Corp. staff about the most important areas needing research. They found the those areas – improving ways of identifying those who are suicidal and developing better methods for the ongoing care of those with self-destructive tendencies – receive little or moderate focus in either funding or number of studies.

“There is no apparent relationship between what is being funded and what (Department of Defense) representatives perceive as important,” RAND researchers concluded.

RAND researchers found that the largest sums of money and the greatest numbers of studies were devoted to finding better treatment methods and improving care, each ranked ninth and fifth, respectively, on a list of most important research areas.

Army Maj. James Bindle, a Pentagon spokesman, responded that the Department of Defense, “takes suicide prevention very seriously and considers any measure that saves a life as one worth taking. We appreciate RAND’s assistance and are currently studying their recommendations.”

Since 2005, about $230 million has gone into understanding why service members or civilians choose to end their lives. More than two-thirds of that funding has come from the military, which redoubled study efforts when suicide rates, particularly in the Army, rose dramatically during wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, RAND found.

The Army rate surpassed the pace of civilian suicides to reach nearly 30 per 100,000 in 2012.

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