Suicide Rates Continue To Climb

L.A. Times article notes U.S. Suicide rate has climbed since 1999. Public health officials unsure as why the rate continues to climb.

After falling for more than a decade, the U.S. suicide rate has climbed
steadily since 1999, driven by an alarming increase among middle-age
adults, researchers said Monday.

A new six-year analysis in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine
found that the U.S. suicide rate rose to 11 per 100,000 people in 2005,
from 10.5 per 100,000 in 1999, an increase of just under 5%.

Asthma and Suicide Linked??

From WebMD.

New research suggests a link between asthma and an increased risk
for suicide attempts in adults, but not suicidal thoughts without
attempts.

Compared to the general population, people in the study with asthma were roughly 50% more likely to attempt suicide after researchers controlled for established suicide risk factors, including depression and alcohol abuse.

Smoking cigarettes, which is a risk factor for asthma, was also found to be independently associated with an increased risk for suicide attempts. But this did not fully explain the link between asthma and attempted suicide.

South Dakota and Depression

Researchers believe that the activity levels and the amount of time spent outdoors contribute to the lower rates of depression in South Dakota. Interestingly South Dakota’s suicide rates are not congruent with the rates of depression.

A report released today ranks South Dakota as the healthiest state in
America when it comes to depression levels – a finding that flattered
officials here still view with some skepticism.

Chantix Related to Suicidal Thoughts?

The FDA is asking that physicians who prescribe Chantix monitor their patients for erratic behaviors which may include an increase of suicidal thoughts. Total sales of Chantix last year topped 101 million dollars.

Read the FDA press release by following this link.

A related MSNBC article can be read by following the link below:

Pfizer said Tuesday it added information about the reports to theproduct’s label, but stressed “there is no scientific evidence establishing a causal relationship between Chantix and these events.” Pfizer said in a statement there were no suicides in a 5,000-patient study of the drug.

 

Depression and Suicide Among U.S. Veterans

I found this article at News-Medical.net.  The article goes into some detail about depression and suicide among veterans.  The study was from 1999-2004 and in that period 1683 people committed suicide.

The study finds that the predictors of suicide among veterans in
depression treatment differ from those seen in the general American
population, with younger, white, non-Hispanic men having the highest
risk among the veterans.

Technorati Tags: depression, suicide, veterans

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CDC press release

I am a little late with this blog. Life has certainly gotten busy over the last few weeks. The CDC issued a press release on September 6, 2007 in regards to youth suicide rates. For the first time in 15 years suicide rates have increased.

Following a decline of more than 28 percent, the suicide rate for 10- to-24-year-olds increased by 8 percent, the largest single-year rise in 15 years, according to a report released today in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention′s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

The decline took place from 1990 to 2003 (from 9.48 to 6.78 per 100,000 people), and the increase took place from 2003 to 2004, (from 6.78 to 7.32), the report said

“This is the biggest annual increase that we′ve seen in 15 years. We don′t yet know if this is a short-lived increase or if it′s the beginning of a trend,” said Dr. Ileana Arias, director of CDC′s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. “Either way, it′s a harsh reminder that suicide and suicide attempts are affecting too many youth and young adults. We need to make sure suicide prevention efforts are continuous and reaching children and young adults.”

Do the mentally ill have the right to suicide?

The Hastings Center has issued an article that explores assisted suicide for the mentally ill. The country of Switzerland allows for assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. But advocates are looking to extend the law to the mentally ill. Let the ethical debates begin.

One crucial distinction between chronic mental illness and terminal disease is that death is inevitable in the latter cases. Yet “inevitable” is really not quite right. From today’s vantage point, a rapid cure for ALS or certain cancers appears highly unlikely, yet the history of modern medicine is replete with examples of illnesses (type I diabetes, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, choriocarcinoma) that have rapidly gone from universally fatal to highly manageable. What we really mean when we speak of inevitability is that we believe the patient should be able to weigh the unlikely possibility of a cure against her other interests. While the window of opportunity for discovering effective treatment may be longer in cases of chronic mental illness, it seems reasonable to afford the patient the same choice in balancing likelihoods against other values. And if the offer is that an effective treatment may eventually be found, but a person will have to suffer for some decades more until that happens, then it might still be rational to prefer suicide.

White male vets have higher suicide rates

There is allot of news about our veterans in the news this week. I stumbled across this article from MedPageToday.com. Some scary statistics here:

As a group, white men who served in the U.S. armed forces are twice as likely to die by their own hands as non-veterans, researchers here found. The suicide risk was greatest among those with few friends or family who had chronic medical or psychiatric conditions.

How many more studies like this are we going to have to read before we start seeing some treatment for our men and women who serve?

Suicidal behavior linked to obesity drug

During clinical trials, people who took the drug Zimulti were found to have an increase in suicidal thoughts. Follow the CNN story below.

Psychiatric problems “represent the most common and worrisome rimonabant -induced adverse events,” the reviewers said. Twenty-six percent of Zimulti patients reported a psychiatric symptom, compared with 14 percent of placebo patients, they said.

Out of the darkness

I am a fan of the Jim Florentine. If you don’t know him, he is a comedian who regularly appears on Howard Stern and Comedy Central. Jim lost his girlfriend to suicide in late December 2006.
He is supporting “Out of The Darkness”. A suicide awareness walk in New York City. The walk begins on June 9 through June 10. The following is from the Out of The Darkness Website.

A suicide attempt is made every minute of every day. Don’t let another day go by.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Out of the Darkness Overnight brings together people with depression and other mood disorders, survivors of suicide loss, mental health professionals and advocates walking side-by-side, arm-in-arm, hand-in-hand, all walking 20 miles throughout the night to prevent loss of life from suicide.

Join us for this unique opportunity to help shed light on suicide, its impact and its prevention and to help friends, family members and loved ones whose lives have been touched by suicide or depression to turn their pain into healing.