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Suicide—The Hidden EpidemicAwake!—2000 | February 22
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In 1996 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that the number of suicides among Americans aged 65 and older had jumped by 36 percent since 1980. Some of this increase was due to the greater numbers of elderly Americans—but not all of it. In 1996 the actual rate of suicide among those over 65 also went up, by 9 percent, for the first time in 40 years. Of injury-related deaths, only falls and motor-vehicle crashes killed more elderly Americans. Actually, even these alarming figures may be too low. “Suicide is suspected of being grossly understated in the statistics based on cause-of-death certification,” observes A Handbook for the Study of Suicide. The book adds that some estimate the actual figures to be twice as high as the reported statistics.
The result? The United States, like many other countries, is suffering from the hidden global epidemic of senior-citizen suicide. Dr. Herbert Hendin, an expert on the subject, notes: “Despite the fact that the suicide rate in the United States rises consistently and markedly with age, suicide among older people has received little public attention.” Why is that? He suggests that part of the problem is that since the suicide rate for older people has always been high, “it has not created the sudden alarm accompanying the dramatic increase in youthful suicide.”
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Suicide—The Hidden EpidemicAwake!—2000 | February 22
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“Not only is suicide significantly more prevalent among older persons, but the suicidal act itself reflects important differences between old and young,” notes Dr. Hendin, in his book Suicide in America. “In particular, the ratio of attempted to actual suicides shifts quite markedly among older persons. Among the population as a whole, the ratio of attempted suicides to actual suicides has been estimated to be 10 to 1; among the young (15-24), it has been estimated to be 100 to 1; and among those over 55, it has been estimated to be 1 to 1.”
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