Suicide rates go up for middle-aged, CDC finds

Keep in mind that while the military points out the increase in suicides in the "civilian" population, they do in fact also include veterans. Last count is 22 veterans a day.

Suicide rates go up for middle-aged, CDC finds
By Maggie Fox, Senior Writer
NBC News

Suicide rates are up alarmingly among middle-aged Americans, according to the latest federal government statistics.

They show a 28 percent rise in suicide rates for people aged 35 to 64 between 1999 and 2010. Rates for children and younger adults, and people over 65, didn’t change much over the same time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. “Most suicide research and prevention efforts have focused historically on youth and the elderly. This report’s findings suggest that efforts should also address the needs of middle-aged persons,” CDC researchers wrote in the agency’s weekly report in death and disease.

The CDC had already noted a worrying trend for suicides. “Suicide deaths have surpassed deaths from motor vehicle crashes in recent years in the United States. In 2010 there were 33,687 deaths from motor vehicle crashes and 38,364 suicides,” the CDC’s Nimesh Patel and Scott Kegler wrote in their report.

They teased out the data by age and sex and found a clear trend for people who usually are at the height of career and family responsibilities -- those aged 35 to 64. “Annual suicide rates for this age group increased 28 percent over this period (from 13.7 suicides per 100,000 people in 1999 to 17.6 per 100,000 in 2010), with particularly high increases among non-Hispanic whites and American Indians and /Alaska Natives,” they wrote.
read more here