CDC: Suicide Rates in the U.S. Highest in the Last 30 Years

The suicide rate in America had been steadily declining in the 80's and 90's. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the suicidal behavior of U.S families, communities, and society have become a serious public health concern since the number has skyrocketed compared in the last 30 years.

In a new report issued by the CDC, they have stated that the suicide rate in the United States has ballooned to its highest level in three decades. According to Al Jazeera, it was found that in 2014, 13 out of 100,000 people took their own lives compared to the 10.5 per 100,000 that was recorded in 1999. The report also stated that the number of suicide deaths in America has been rising since 1999 for individuals between the ages 10 and 74. However, it showed a particularly prominent increase among the country's white middle-aged population.

All in all, the suicide rate in the country increased by 24 percent from 1999 to 2014. "It had been decreasing almost steadily since 1986, and then what happened is there was a turnaround," says Sally Curtin, a statistician with the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some say the decrease in suicide deaths from the late 80s through the 90s is partially a result of more effective antidepressants, with fewer side effects, NPR reported.

Medical Daily reports that middle-aged women between ages 46 to 64 had the second largest increase in number since 1999 at 63 percent. Women aging 15 to 24, 25 to 44, and 65 to 74, had an average increase ranging from 31 to 53 percent. Men, on the other hand, tell a different story. It was found that older men aged 75 and over had high suicide rates, but only fewer deaths. Records show that the number decreased from 42.4 per 100,000 in 1999 to 38.8 in 2014.

Teenage boys were observed to have a high suicide rate which increased by 37 percent since 1999. However, they had the lowest number of death reported among men in all age groups. "This is part of the larger emerging pattern of evidence of the links between poverty, hopelessness and health," Robert D. Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard and the author of Our Kids, told the Times.