Suicides by drugs in U.S. are undercounted, new study suggests

The rate of suicides by drug intoxication in the United States may be vastly underreported and misclassified, according to a new study co-written by  Mark Kaplan, professor of social welfare at the  UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.The study waspublished online Jan. 10 in the journal PLOS ONE. The researchers report that the drug suicide rate in the United States rose nearly one-quarter (24 percent) between 2000 and 2016, and the accidental opioid and other drug intoxication death rate increased by 312 percent. This rate gap suggests an increase in suicide undercounting, according to the multidisciplinary international team of researchers led by Ian Rockett of West Virginia University School of Public Health.UCLA Luskin School of Public AffairsMark Kaplan“Unfortunately, part of the problem is due to serious under-resourcing of state and local death investigation systems throughout most of the U.S.,” said Kaplan, whose research has focused on using population-wide data to understand suicide risk factors among veterans, seniors and other vulnerabl e populations. Kaplan added that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported more than 63,000 drug deaths in 2016, up from 52,000 in 2015.“Many of these deaths were probably suicides, yet reported as accidental self-poisoning rather than intentional self-harm, particularly among the middle-aged,” Kaplan said.The researchers report that suicide notes and psychiatric history, including a prior suicid...

Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - January 10, 2018 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news