Red Lake Indian Reservation shows high suicide rate

Beltrami suicide rate triggers Health Department investigation
by Lorna Benson, Minnesota Public Radio
September 17, 2007
The Minnesota Department of Health has opened an investigation into the causes behind Beltrami County's high suicide rate. New analysis from the department shows that the rate is nearly double the statewide average. Beltrami County is located in north central Minnesota. Its largest city is Bemidji and it's home to the Red Lake Indian Reservation. The new analysis found high numbers of suicides among Indians and white people.

St. Paul, Minn. — Officials in Beltrami County suspected they had a high suicide mortality rate.

They just didn't have the proof. So they asked the Minnesota Department of Health to look into the numbers. The department poured over death certificates from public records and injury details from hospital discharge data.

Epidemiologist Jon Roesler was surprised by what he found.

"Not only does Beltrami County have a problem with suicide, but they have probably one of the worst problems of suicide in the whole state of any of the counties," he says.

When adjusted for age and population, Beltrami County had an average of 19 suicides per year per 100,000 people from 1996 to 2005. That compares to a statewide rate of 10 suicides per 100,000, Roesler says.

"Not only are the rates higher for the county overall, but in particular the rates are higher for the youth ages 15 to 24. That really seemed to be where the problem of suicide was the greatest."

The suicide rate among youth reached 21 in Beltrami County - that's two additional suicides per 100,000 people. For the same age group, the statewide average is 9.
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Just one more example that this country and the world have a very serious problem with sucides. People don't commit suicide for no reason at all. There are problems all over the world and the numbers seem to be growing.

It's premature to blame FDA for suicide rise
By Scott Allen, Globe Staff September 17, 2007

The front page headline in the Washington Post was alarming: "Youth suicides increased as antidepressant use fell." A new study argued that a record increase in youth suicides in 2004 may have been the unintended consequence of federal warnings that antidepressants such as Prozac can trigger suicidal thoughts in children. Media outlets across the country reported the painful irony that the Food and Drug Administration's attempt to prevent suicides seemed to have increased them by discouraging doctors from properly treating depressed young people.

"We may have inadvertently created a problem," lamented Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, to the Post earlier this month.

But a closer look at the numbers suggests that the suicide fears are at least premature, if not baseless, say people who specialize in health statistics.

Suicide is so rare among young people that even the record increase reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - based on 2004 statistics - represents just 248 extra deaths among 61.5 million youths in the United States ages 5 to 19. And almost half the extra deaths involved 18- and 19-year-olds who were not included in the antidepressant warning. As a result, the suicide rise is so small that statisticians will not be able to say whether it's a real trend or just bad luck - at least until 2005 totals are available later this year.
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http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_
science/articles/2007/09/17/its_premature_to_blame_fda_for_suicide_rise/

Suicide overwhelmingly remains Oregon's number one violent cause ...By mrollins Of 748 Oregonians who died violently in 2005, suicide accounted for 555, or 74 percent of them, according to a study released this morning by the Oregon Department of Human Services. Far back as a cause of death was homicide,...OregonLive.com: Breaking News Updates - http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/