Society & Culture - Posted by Carol Clark-Emory on Monday, September 27, 2010 11:34 - 3 Comments 
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(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Boomers raise midlife suicide rate
"This is a striking new trend," says social demographer Julie Phillips of Rutgers University. "Since the 1930s and up to the 1990s, suicide rates among middle-aged people—those aged 40 to 59—were declining or pretty stable. But after 2000, this picture changed dramatically." (Credit: iStockphoto)
EMORY / RUTGERS (US)— The suicide rate for middle-aged people took an upward jump between 1999 and 2005, a new study finds.
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Details are reported in the journal Public Health Reports.
“The findings are disturbing, because they’re a reversal of a long-standing trend,” says sociologists Ellen Idler of Emory University, noting that the suicide rate for the U.S. population overall has been declining for decades. And people aged 40-59, in particular, have long had a moderate suicide rate.
The baby boomers, people born between 1945 and 1964, have broken that pattern.
“This is a striking new trend,” says social demographer Julie Phillips of Rutgers University. “Since the 1930s and up to the 1990s, suicide rates among middle-aged people—those aged 40 to 59—were declining or pretty stable. But after 2000, this picture changed dramatically.”
By 2000, most people aged 40 to 59 were baby boomers and the suicide rate started climbing steadily for these middle-age ranges.
Idler and Philips found significant increases of more than 2 percent per year for men, and more than 3 percent per year for women, from 1999 to 2005. (By 2005, all middle-aged people were baby boomers.)
The post-1999 increase has been particularly dramatic for those who are unmarried and those without a college degree, the analysis showed.
For example, from 2000 to 2005, the suicide rate jumped nearly 30 percent for men and women aged 50 to 59 with some college but no degree. Middle-aged people with a college degree appeared largely protected from the trend.
The baby boomers also experienced higher suicide rates during their adolescence and young adulthood, doubling the rate for those age groups at the time. Their suicide rate then declined slightly and stabilized, before beginning to increase again in midlife.
“You might think that the higher rates in adolescence would lead to lower rates later because the most suicide prone people would be gone but that doesn’t appear to be the case,” Idler says.
“Clinical studies often show that knowing someone who committed suicide is considered a risk factor for later doing it yourself, and that may be one factor here. The high rates in adolescence could actually be contributing to the high rates in middle age.”
Higher rates of substance abuse and the onset of chronic diseases are among other possible factors in the rising baby boomer suicide rate.
“As children, the baby boomers were the healthiest cohort that had ever lived, due to the availability of antibiotics and vaccines,” Idler says. “Chronic conditions could be more of a rude awakening for them in midlife than they were for earlier generations.”
Traditionally, midlife has been considered a time when people are at their peak of social integration.
“We need to pay attention to this new increase in suicides, during a period of life previously thought to be stable and relatively protected from suicide, and in an age group now occupied by extraordinarily large numbers of people,” Idler says.
Data for the study were drawn from the National Center for Health Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. Preliminary data from 2006 and 2007, the latest time that statistics are available, indicate that the upward pattern in midlife suicide is continuing, Idler says.
More news from Emory: http://esciencecommons.blogspot.com/
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3 Comments
Maureen martin
MY BROTHER COMMITTED SUICIDE IN 2006 AT THE AGE OF 58. HE HAD TRIED TO KILL HIMSELF THIRTY YEARS PRIOR. HE LEFT A NOTE THAT EXPLAINED THAT THIS TIME HE WANTED OUT BECAUSE HIS BODY HAD GIVEN UP DUE TO HIS POOR CARE OF IT. HE EXPLAINED HIS CHOICE WAS TO LEAVE THIS EARTH WHILE HE WAS STILL IN CONTROL. HOWEVER, I BELIEVE HE SUFFERED DEPRESSION ALL HIS LIFE AND WHEN HIS HEALTH BECAME A LOOMING CHALLENGE HE DID NOT HAVE THE EMOTIONAL STRENGTH TO ENDURE. LIKE MANY BABY BOOMERS, HE WAS NOT RELIGIOUS AND HAD NO TABOO AGAINST SUICIDE. HE HAD BEEN USING CANNABIS TO SELF MEDICATE AFTER HIS FIRST ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE, BUT UPON A STRONG SUGGESTION BY HIS DOCTOR, HE QUIT POT AND WENT ONTO A FARMA ANTI-DEPRESSANT AND WITHIN THREE WEEKS HE HAD JUMPED OFF A BRIDGE TO HIS DEATH.
Al's wife
My husband, who was 55 at the time, took his own life on in March of 2005. Maureen’s brother’s story sounds familiar. I suspect my husband suffered from depression (he was once diagnosed as bipolar). He used to self-medicate with pot, but gave it all up trying to be “good.” I was always worried he would get caught buying it once I wouldn’t let him grow it any more. He ended up using cocaine, behaving very strangely, and was put on several, obviously useless antidepressants. He seemed to want to get out before he caused more pain for those around him. He had a college degree and a master’s degree in business. He was fully employed. That goes against the statistics.
Economic stress as an answer? People are finding that they can’t afford to retire, or worse, that they are destitute. The strain must be incredible. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the figures rise further as the recession deepens (notwithstanding pundits who are argue that it is over…).