U.S. Suicide Rates on the Rise for Middle-Aged Adults

For the first time in ten years, the suicide rate is increasing. But this time it’s not teens, young adults and elderly white men who are taking their own lives as rates have indicated in the past. Instead, more deaths are occurring among white, middle-aged men and women.
On the whole, the U.S. suicide rate has risen by 0.7 percent annually between the years of 1999 and 2005, resulting in 11 suicides per 100,000 people, up from 10.5 suicides per 100,000. Yet, the increase was notably higher among white men and women in the age range from 40 to 64. In comparison, the rates for African-Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans declined or remained the same.
Among men within the middle-aged group, a 2.7 percent increase in the number of incidents of suicide has been noted, while a 3.9 percent rise has been recorded in women of the same age group. The information is according to a new report from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Injury Research and Policy that was recently published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Using data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the study also discovered that the methods by which people are taking their own lives are changing. Although suicide by firearms decreased only a little more than 1 percent annually between 1999 and 2005 and still accounts for more than half of the deaths at 52 percent, death by hanging and suffocation rose by an average of almost 5 percent, now accounting for 22 percent of suicides. In addition, poisonings increased by about 2 percent and are responsible for18 percent of deaths.
In a statement, study author Susan Baker remarked, “While it would be straightforward to attribute the results to a rise in so-called mid-life crises, recent studies find that middle age is mostly a time of relative security and emotional well-being.” She acknowledged that the study did not investigate reasons for middle-aged Americans taking their lives.
Another factor not addressed in the research was whether an increase in the use of anti-depressants from 154 million prescriptions in 2002 to almost 170 million in 2005 could have had an effect on the number of suicide incidents. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has linked these drugs to suicidal behavior in teens and young adults.
According to Paula Clayton, medical director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, possibilities for the rising suicide rate include the abuse of prescription painkillers that can raise the risk of suicide as well as less use of hormone replacement therapy for prevention of depression after the therapy was linked to an increased risk of cancer. Other causes may be associated with anxieties surrounding terrorism after 9/11 coupled with suicides among Iraq and Afghanistan war vets could be a cause of the increase. In addition, Clayton said that over 90 percent of suicides are associated with psychiatric disorders, and deteriorating access to treatment may part of the explanation.
Another connection to the rate of suicide may be found in The Baby Boomer hypothesis. According to a large study regarding happiness in America conducted earlier this year, Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) were the least happy age group of all those surveyed. Researchers performed the analysis at the University of Chicago and the report was published in the American Sociological Review.