Suicide rates in the USA are up after more than a decade of dropping, and middle-aged whites primarily account for the increase, a report says.
The rate for whites 40 to 64 years old jumped 19% for women and 16% for men from 1999 to 2005, say researchers from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Their analysis was published online in the AmericanJournal of Preventive Medicine.
Suicides had dropped 18% from 1986 to 1998, says Susan Baker, co-author of the report with Guoqing Hu.
The new figures, the most recent available, show a major shift from teens, young adults and the elderly having the highest risk for suicide, Baker says. Suicide prevention has not focused on middle-aged adults, and nobody knows why more are taking their lives.
"But this may be a wake-up call," Baker says. "We can't wait another five years to find out why it's happening."
Although shooting is still the dominant suicide method, poisonings have increased sharply, especially among women. More people than ever can obtain potentially lethal prescription drugs, Baker says. There were 32,637 suicides in 2005, the fourth-leading cause of death in the USA.
About 90% of adults who commit suicide have a diagnosable mental disorder, says Bonnie Bear of the San Diego-based Survivors of Suicide Loss, an education and support group. Some in middle age had been getting professional help, "but then you add a divorce or financial stress, and it just pushes them off the edge."
She's worried that stress from the nation's financial meltdown will trigger even more suicides among middle-aged adults.
"Some are losing their jobs and health insurance and can't get the medication they need," Bear says.
Some say it's premature to draw dire conclusions from the report. Suicide rates have fluctuated in recent decades and easily could dip again, says Alan Berman, executive director of the American Association of Suicidology, a group of researchers and specialists in the field.
If the rise lasts for a decade or more, it might be cause for concern, Berman says. Though the increases look steep for middle-aged whites, overall they aren't that dramatic, he says.
The report cites adults 45 to 49 as particularly higher in suicides than those in other age groups. "They were children when the divorce rate went up, and their own marriage rate is down. They may be more alienated and isolated," says Janice Wassell, a demographer who specializes in family and aging at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.
She also sees women in their 40s a few years ago as the first large wave that routinely combined full-time work with families, potentially increasing pressures.
To see more of USAToday.com, or to subscribe, go to http://www.usatoday.com
??? Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.