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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- For the first time in a decade, suicide rates in the U.S. are on the rise. The dramatic increase in suicides among white middle-aged women is the driving force behind the increase.
Between 1999 and 2005, the overall suicide rate rose less than 1 percent but among white middle-aged men that rate was up 2.7 percent and up 3.9 percent among white middle-aged women. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Healths Center for Injury Research and Policy said suicides for blacks decreased significantly and remained stable for Asians and Native Americans over the same period of time.
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The studys authors said the study shows middle-aged whites -- those between 40 and 64 -- are emerging as a new high-risk group.
Historically, suicide prevention programs have focused on groups considered to be at highest risk -- teens and young adults of both genders as well as elderly white men, said study co-author Susan P. Baker. This research tells us we need to refocus our resources to develop prevention programs for men and women in their middle years.
The study also found the rate of suicides using firearms decreased, although it remains the predominant method of suicide. The rates of suicide by hanging or suffocation increased among men and women, surpassing poisoning.
SOURCE: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published online October 22, 2008
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