Middle-Age Suicide Rate Increase Leaves Health Experts at a Loss [View All]

[Xipe Totec]

I missed the deadline for LBN, so here it is in Editorials...

A new five-year analysis of the nation’s death rates recently released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the suicide rate among 45-to-54-year-olds increased nearly 20 percent from 1999 to 2004, the latest year studied, far outpacing changes in nearly every other age group. (All figures are adjusted for population.)

For women 45 to 54, the rate leaped 31 percent. “That is certainly a break from trends of the past,” said Ann Haas, the research director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

By contrast, the suicide rate for 15-to-19-year-olds increased less than 2 percent during that five-year period — and decreased among people 65 and older.

The question is why. What happened in 1999 that caused the suicide rate to suddenly rise primarily for those in midlife? For health experts, it is like discovering the wreckage of a plane crash without finding the black box that recorded flight data just before the aircraft went down.

http://www-tech.mit.edu/V128/N5/long4.html


In my opinion, the plane crash analogy is the wrong analogy. Middle aged men and women are sinking economically and many are reaching crush depth.