Tag: suicide

Guns, Germs, and Drugs Are Largely Responsible for the Decline in U.S. Life Expectancy

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://reason.com/2024/01/08/guns-germs-and-drugs-are-largely-responsible-for-the-decline-in-u-s-life-expectancy/

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The Post reported that some politicians pointed to the rising death toll from “lethal drug overdoses” as a significant factor in declining U.S. life expectancy. The Post did, however, acknowledge that drug deaths “are not solely responsible for the decline in life expectancy.” It is worth noting that opioid overdose deaths began truly soaring after 2010 when users turned to illicit heroin and fentanyl after the introduction of Food and Drug Administration–approved abuse-deterrent formulations.

So how much do drug overdose deaths contribute to the recent decline in U.S. life expectancy? A 2021 comprehensive review of factors affecting mortality trends in the U.S. between 1999 and 2018 found that average life expectancy would “have been 0.3 years greater were it not for increases in unintentional drug poisoning.” In a 2023 preprint article, two Johns Hopkins University researchers calculated that opioid overdose deaths between 2019 and 2021 reduced U.S. life expectancy by 0.65 years. If politicians and policy makers really want to make increasing life expectancy a priority, one huge step would be to actually end the war on drugs. A cease-fire in the drug war would likely reduce gun deaths too.

Author(s): Ronald Bailey

Publication Date: 8 Jan 2024

Publication Site: Reason

U.S. Suicide Deaths Rose in 2022, C.D.C. Estimates Say

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/11/well/mind/suicide-deaths-2022-cdc.html

Excerpt:

The estimated number of suicide deaths in the United States rose to nearly 50,000 in 2022, according to provisional data released on Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The total would be an increase of approximately 2.6 percent since 2021.

The C.D.C. estimates the overall number of deaths to be 49,449 but has not yet calculated the suicide rates for 2022. Given that the U.S. population grew by about 0.4 percent in 2022, a 2.6 percent increase in deaths indicates that suicide rates are continuing to rise, although not universally among all groups.

Suicide deaths have fluctuated somewhat over the years and declined in 2019 and 2020. But the overall suicide rate, or the number of suicides per 100,000 people, has increased by about 35 percent over the last two decades. People 65 and older had the highest increase in the number of deaths by suicide in 2022 among the various age groups.

Author(s):Christina Caron

Publication Date: 11 Aug 2023

Publication Site: NY Times

Suicides rose in Japan among young women and girls during pandemic

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/06/26/national/female-suicides-increase-pandemic/?utm_source=pianoT5&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=295&tpcc=take5&pnespid=_uCIiYNau7Ha8vagqxixsvFPuxwV_XNzwhEqAks2oB2VA3_UbhwgFChCladWaMcGiWrj

Excerpt:

Researchers in Japan have found a significant increase in the number of suicides among women and girls between the ages of 10 and 24 during the pandemic, while there was no significant change in the suicide rate for boys and men in the same age group.

The research team analyzed data on suicides by gender across three age groups — 10 to 14, 15 to 19 and 20 to 24 — comparing the number of suicides after July 2020 with the number of suicides before the pandemic began.

According to the health ministry, the number of suicides among women and girls age between 10 and 24 in 2022 was 745, an increase of 233 compared with the 2019 figure. The data also showed that the number of boys and men in that age range who committed suicide was 1,278, an increase of 100 cases from 2019.

The research was led by Nobuyuki Horita from Yokohama City University Hospital and Sho Moriguchi from the Department of Neuroscience at Keio University using data on deaths by suicide from July 2012 to June 2022 provided by the health ministry.

…..

Over the past 10 years, a total of 13,263 young people age 10 to 24 — 9,428 male and 3,835 female — died by suicide.

Author(s): KARIN KANEKO

Publication Date: 26 June 2023

Publication Site: Japan Times

Suicide Mortality in the United States, 2001–2021

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db464.htm

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  • The total age-adjusted suicide rate increased from 10.7 deaths per 100,000 standard population in 2001 to a recent peak of 14.2 in 2018, and then declined to 13.5 in 2020. In 2021, the rate increased 4% to 14.1, the largest 1-year increase during the period (Figure 1).
  • The suicide rate for males did not change significantly from 2001 (18.2) through 2006 (18.1), and then increased to 22.8 in 2018. Rates declined in 2019 (22.4) and 2020 (22.0) but then increased 4% in 2021 (22.8).
  • The suicide rate for females increased from 2001 (4.1) through 2015 (6.0) and then did not change significantly through 2018 (6.2). Following a 2-year decline to 5.5 in 2020, the rate increased 4% in 2021 (5.7).
  • The suicide rate for males was three to four and one-half times the rate for females during the 2001–2021 period.

Author(s): Matthew F. Garnett, M.P.H., and Sally C. Curtin, M.A.

Publication Date: April 2023

Publication Site: National Center for Health Statistics, CDC

The Economic Cost of Gun Violence

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://everytownresearch.org/report/the-economic-cost-of-gun-violence/

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  • Taxpayers, survivors, families, and employers pay an average of $7.79 million daily in health care costs, including immediate and long-term medical and mental health care, plus patient transportation/ambulance costs related to gun violence, and lose an estimated $147.32 million per day related to work missed due to injury or death. 
  • American taxpayers pay $30.16 million every day in police and criminal justice costs for investigation, prosecution, and incarceration. 
  • Employers lose an average of $1.47 million on a daily basis in productivity, revenue, and costs required to recruit and train replacements for victims of gun violence.
  • Society loses $1.34 billion daily in quality-of-life costs from the suffering and lost well-being of gun violence victims and their families.

Author(s):

Publication Date: 19 July 2022

Publication Site: Everytown Research

World Suicide Prevention Day: U.S. Suicide Trend Update through 2021

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://marypatcampbell.substack.com/p/world-suicide-prevention-day-us-suicide

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In updating the 2021 numbers, there is some bad news: while suicide rates had decreased in 2020, in 2021 they increased to continue a worrying trend:

The increase in 2021 brought the age-adjusted death rate back to a level close to the peak, which was in 2018.

As noted on the graph, the cumulative increase in the age-adjusted death rate from the minimum in 2000 to the current levels has been 35%. This is very worrying.

I could have exaggerated this trend by starting my vertical scale at 10 instead of 0, but I think it’s obvious enough the trend is bad.

I don’t need to exaggerate.

Author(s): Mary Pat Campbell

Publication Date: 10 Sep 2022

Publication Site: STUMP on substack

Childhood Mortality Trends, 1999-2021 (provisional), Ages 1-17

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://marypatcampbell.substack.com/p/childhood-mortality-trends-1999-2021

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There was the good news from before the pandemic: the accidental death rate had come way, way down. That was mostly due to improved traffic safety. (Not reduced drug ODs, alas)

In the pandemic, both increased motor vehicle deaths and drug overdoses has pushed up the accidental death rate for teens to increase to levels seen a decade ago.

But there was a bad pre-pandemic trend: suicide rates had increased from 2007 to 2018 — increasing a total of 120% over that period. That was hideous.

It seemed to have reversed in 2019, and come down during the pandemic. The suicide trends in the pandemic really made no sense to anybody, but perhaps the increased drug ODs were actually suicides.

Homicides didn’t have a steady trend before the pandemic, but has definitely had a bad trend during the pandemic. Homicide death rates for teens increased over 50% from 2019 to 2021.

One observation: suicide and homicide death rates used to be about the same for teens in the early 2000s, and then with the bad suicide trend, suicide ranked higher. Even with the increase in homicide rates, suicide still ranks higher.

Author(s): Mary Pat Campbell

Publication Date: 15 June 2022

Publication Site: STUMP at substack

Firearm Mortality by State

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/firearm_mortality/firearm.htm

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1 The number of deaths per 100,000 total population.

Source: https://wonder.cdc.gov

States are categorized from highest rate to lowest rate. Although adjusted for differences in age-distribution and population size, rankings by state do not take into account other state specific population characteristics that may affect the level of mortality. When the number of deaths is small, rankings by state may be unreliable due to instability in death rates.

Publication Date: accessed 31 May 2022

Publication Site: CDC

Mortality Nuggets: Videos on Suicide Rate Trends, Society of Actuaries Report, and Fixing Their Graph

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://marypatcampbell.substack.com/p/mortality-nuggets-videos-on-suicide

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  • I highlighted a few of the cause-of-death trends. In particular, COVID (which, obviously, is biased more towards the old), and external causes of death: homicide, suicide, and accidents (which includes drug overdoses and motor vehicle accidents).
  • There are basically too many things going on in this graph, so there aren’t a lot of good choices for either me or the SOA. What I did was to pick four of the data series to highlight with data labels, as noted above (and I also slapped one data label on dementia for the oldest age group, just because). I am in the middle of a series going through how that external causes of death changed in 2020 — in particular, accidents and homicides went up, and really affected mortality for adults under age 45, plus male teens.
  • Yeah, check out heart disease and cancer (bottom of the graph). Ain’t old age great?

Author(s): Mary Pat Campbell

Publication Date: 6 Feb 2022

Publication Site: STUMP at substack

Suicide Risk Screenings Can Save Lives

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2022/01/25/suicide-risk-screenings-can-save-lives

Excerpt:

Suicide was the 12th leading cause of death in the United States in 2020.

The overall U.S. suicide rate grew 33% from 1999 to 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC reports even higher increases among certain racial and ethnic groups: American Indian and Alaska Native women (139%) and men (71%), Black women (65%), White women (68%) and men (40%), and Hispanic women (37%). Other people at greater risk of suicide include veterans, people who identify as LGBTQ, youth and young adults, and disaster survivors.

….

According to a recent study, about half of people who died by suicide over the 10-year period examined had seen a health care professional at least once in the month before their death. Additional research suggests that, if they were screened for suicide risk by those providers, many might have received care and survived. Indeed, a 2017 study of eight emergency departments across seven states found 30% fewer suicide attempts among patients who were screened and received evidence-based care compared with patients who were not screened. Another study that looked at veterans affairs hospitals found that patients who were screened and then received clinical interventions were half as likely to experience suicidal behavior and more than twice as likely to attend mental health treatment compared with those who received usual care.

Author(s): Kristen Mizzi Angelone

Publication Date: 25 Jan 2022

Publication Site: Pew