Middle-aged women drive rise in US suicides

Middle-aged women drive rise in US suicides

US suicide rates appear to be on the rise, driven mostly by middle-aged white women. it was found that disturbing increase in suicides between 1999 and 2005 and said the pattern had changed in an unmistakable way. The overall suicide rate rose 0.7 % during this time, but the rate for white men aged 40 to 64 rose 2.7 percent and for middle-aged women 3.9 percent, the team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found.

The biggest increase that we have seen between 1999 and 2005 was the increase in poisoning suicide in women that went up by 57 percent. "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. "

The middle-aged women and men used various techniqe to kill themselves such as poisons, drugs, hanging and firearms. While firearms remain the most common method, the rate of gun suicides decreased while suicide by hanging or suffocation increased by 6.3 percent among men, and 2.3 percent among women.

In September researchers confirmed an 18%spike in youth suicides in the United States in 2004 persisted into 2005 after more than a decade of decreases and international research published in January found that the young, single, female, poorly educated and mentally ill are all at higher risk of suicide. According to the World Health Organization, suicide rates have increased by 60 percent in the last 45 years. Depression is the leading cause of suicide.