The re‐emerging suicide crisis in the U.S.: Patterns, causes and solutions

Abstract

The suicide rate in the United States has risen nearly 40% since 2000. This increase is puzzling because suicide rates had been falling for decades at the end of the 20th century. In this paper, we review important facts about the changing rate of suicide. General trends do not tell the story of important differences across groups—suicide rates rose substantially among middle‐aged persons between 2005 and 2015 but have fallen since. Among young people, suicide rates began a rapid rise after 2010 that has not abated. We review empirical evidence to assess potential causes for recent changes in suicide rates. The economic hardship caused by the Great Recession played an important role in rising suicide among prime‐aged Americans. Among those under 25, nearly all the increase in suicide mortality during the 2010s can be explained by an increase in the prevalence of depression. Bullying victimization of LGBTQ youth could also account for part of the rise in suicide. The evidence that access to firearms or opioids are major drivers of recent suicide trends is less clear. We end by summarizing evidence on the most promising policies to reduce suicide mortality.

The 988 suicide hotline—Lifeline or letdown? A pre-post policy analysis

“…For the reasons stated above, Georgia offered us insight into the national implications of the 988 crisis line given its designation as a nationally representative state, providing a window into how states can assess progress and shortcomings of the Lifeline. Still, the impact and effectiveness of 988 on a national level remains one of the largest open questions in crisis intervention services in the U.S. (67). While researchers have begun looking into the effectiveness of third-party callers (68) and chat interventions (69) and preliminary implementation guidance has been published by SAMHSA (3), peer-reviewed literature examining the nationwide effectiveness of the 988 suicide hotline post-rollout has yet to be published.…”