Increase in Suicide Attempts Appears Driven By Young Adults With Less Formal Education, Psychiatric Disorders

An overall increase in suicide attempts from 2004-2005 to 2012-2013 appears to have disproportionately affected younger adults with less formal education and those with antisocial personality disorder, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and a history of violence, according to areport published today inJAMA Psychiatry.Borderline personality disorder (BPD) continues to be the disorder most associated with suicide attempt risk, but the percentage of individuals with BPD attempting suicide dropped during the period of analysis, possibly suggesting increased access to evidence-based treatments.Lead author Mark Olfson, M.D., M.P.H. (pictured above), of Columbia University and colleagues noted that because attempted suicide is the greatest known risk factor for completed suicide, reducing suicide attempts is an important public health and clinical goal. “The trends revealed in the study support a clinical and public health focus on young, socioeconomically disadvantaged adults, especially those who have made previous suicide attempts and those who have common mood, anxiety, and personality disorders,” he toldPsychiatric News.Olfson and colleagues used data from the 2004-2005 wave 2 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) and the 2012-2013 NESARC-III. These nationally representative surveys asked identical questions to 69,341 adults, aged 21 years and older, concerning the occurrence and timing of suicide attempts.During the study perio...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: antisocial personality disorder anxiety disorders depressive disorders less education M.D. M.P.A. Mark Olfson suicide attempts Source Type: research