RESEARCH WEEKLY: The disturbing new suicide statistics
(May 3, 2016) The latest suicide statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are disturbing.
Disturbing enough is that, at a time of generally declining mortality, suicide rates have risen significantly over the last 15 years, and the growth rate has accelerated. In 2014, 42,773 people in the United States died by suicide, making it the 10th leading cause of death in the nation and the 2nd leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds. More than 100 Americans die by suicide every day.
Trends
Among the trends the CDC reported:
- The age-adjusted suicide rate in 2014 was13.0 per 100,000 population – 24% higher than the rate of 10.5 per 100,000 in 1999.
- The suicide rate is increasing at a faster pace. From 1999 to 2006, the average annual increase in the age-adjusted suicide rate was about 1% per year. From 2006 through 2014, it rose 2% per year.
- Though men continued to complete suicide more often than women, the suicide rate among women increased at nearly three times the pace as the rate among men – a 45% increase over the last 15 years compared with a 16% increase for men. This is consistent with our recent survey of negative outcomes women with serious mental illness are more likely to experience than men.
- Suicide rates are sharply rising among middle-aged Americans of both genders.
“After a period of nearly consistent decline in suicide rates in the United States from 1986 through 1999, suicide rates have increased almost steadily from 1999 through 2014,” the report said.
Beyond the Trends
Disturbing as these are, also disturbing is how little alarm suicide trends provoke.
Suicide killed more people in 2014 than car accidents. It killed about three times as many people as prescription opioids overdose, which makes almost daily headlines. It killed seven times as many people as acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), which has its own budget line item and receives more than 10% of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) budget every year.
Suicide is an outcome of mental illness. The suicide risk for individuals with bipolar disorder is 15 times higher than in the general population; half of people diagnosed with the disease attempt suicide at some point in their lives. Nearly as many people with schizophrenia attempt to kill themselves and they complete more often than those with bipolar. A World Health Organization study found suicide to be the most common cause of death in schizophrenia.
Bipolar, schizophrenia and depression, also highly associated with suicide, are diseases that are treatable that consistently are untreated in half of all patients. “The reasons for suicide are often complex, and officials and researchers acknowledge that no one can explain with certainty what is behind the rise,” the New York Times reported in its coverage of the new CDC data.
Perhaps not, but suicide is epidemic and preventable. We can start with what we do know: As a cause of death, it is virtually always rooted in mental health conditions that respond to treatment. More treatment, fewer suicides.
References:
Centers for Disease Control. (April 2016). Increase in suicide in the United States, 1999-2014
Suicide Awareness Voices of Education. Suicide Facts.
Treatment Advocacy Center. (March 2016). 10 ways women with SMI are overrepresented, underserved.
Parker-Pope, Tara. (2 May 2013). Suicide rates rise sharply in US. New York Times.
Canadian Mental Health Association. (Undated.) The relationship between suicide and mental illness.
