NEW YORK (Reuters) - The suicide rate among middle-aged Americans rose sharply between 1999 and 2010, a trend that could reflect the stresses of a sharp economic downturn, according to a federal report released on Thursday.
The annual rate of suicide rose 28 percent among Americans aged 35 to 64 during the study period, but changed little for older and younger people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The number of suicides among people in their 50s doubled in that time frame.
The increase may reflect the influence of the weak economy - suicides generally rise during downturns - and an increase in the use of prescription opioid painkiller drugs, the CDC said.
The U.S. economy twice went into recession during the study period, briefly in 2001 and sharply during the so-called Great Recession of December 2007-June 2009 that sent the unemployment rate as high as 10 percent.
The pressures of the downturn took a heavy toll on the middle-aged, some of whom had to care for both children and aging parents, as well as deal with their own health problems, the study found.
Historically, suicide prevention campaigns have focused on younger and older people, not the middle-aged.
The findings show the need to address mental health problems and challenges that the middle-aged are likely to face, the study said.
"Suicide is a tragedy that is far too common," said CDC Director Tom Frieden. "This report highlights the need to expand our knowledge of risk factors so we can build on prevention programs that prevent suicide."
In total, there were 33,687 U.S. deaths from motor vehicle crashes and 38,364 suicides in 2010.
The CDC warned that the actual toll from suicide may be higher than that, as some possible suicides are classified as undetermined in the National Vital Statistics System, which provided the data on which the new study was based.
The report drew attention to especially high increases of suicide among Native Americans, for whom the rate rose by 65 percent overall - 60 percent among men and more than 81 percent among women. The suicide rate rose 40 percent for non-Hispanic whites.
The most common ways people killed themselves were by using firearms, poison - often by overdosing on drugs - and suffocation, typically by hanging, a method for which the suicide rate increased by 81 percent between 1999 and 2010.
By Atossa Araxia Abrahamian (Reporting by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian; Editing by Scott Malone and Lisa Von Ahn)
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