Suicide Rate Increases

A new study found that suicide rates are increasing. Researchers found that from 1999 to 2005, the overall suicide rate in the United States rose 0.7 percent. However, among middle-aged white women, the annual increase was 3.9 percent; among middle-aged white men it was 2.7 percent. The report did not explain why there was such an increase among these populations. According to Susan P. Baker, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

[I]t's not clear what might be causing the rising suicide rates among middle-aged whites. "We need to study the individual people who have committed suicide and see what were their living circumstances. Were they depressed, was this impulsive? A lot more specific information is needed," she said.

For more information on suicide please see our Briefing Paper, SUICIDE: ONE OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF FAILING TO TREAT SEVERE PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS