Some Offs Are Up

Suicide rates among Americans are trending upward.

The suicide rate in the U.S. rose from 1999 to 2005, the first increase after a decline of more than a decade, fueled by a 17 percent rise among middle-aged whites, researchers reported today.

Middle-aged men continued to kill themselves at a much higher rate than middle-aged women, while the rate rose faster in women than men. Rates of suicide declined slightly among blacks and Asians of all ages, as well as among white teenagers and adults younger than 40. They fell even more in people 65 and older.

Yet the number of white people ages 40 to 64 who took their own lives increased, to 17.5 for every 100,000 people in 2005 from 14.9 per 100,000 in 1999. The numbers surprised Susan Baker, a professor at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, who said yesterday in a telephone interview she was worried "the trend may continue or get worse.''

"I don't know what's going on with this age group,'' said Baker, who led the analysis, which was published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

I recall reading that middle-aged homosexual men are prone to severe depression and commit suicide at a relatively high rate. I suggest it is part of the reason for the bump in middle-aged male suicides.