The Hill (2/2, Ali) reports, “Understanding rates of suicide can be tricky, as researchers in a new study initially found there was a decline in the overall number of intentional drug overdoses,” but after they isolated “data more finely, they found suicide rates actually went up for young people, Black women and the elderly.”
HealthDay (2/2, Thompson) reports, “Suicides by drug overdose have increased among teens, young adults and seniors, even as they declined for the overall population,” investigators from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse concluded. While “drug-related suicides declined for Americans in general during the latter part of the 2010s,” the “rates of suicide by overdose among 15- to 24-year-olds rose, as did those for 75- to 84-year-olds.” The findings were published online Feb. 2 in a research letter in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). HealthDay quotes Smita Das, MD, PhD, MPH, chair of the APA’s Council on Addiction Psychiatry, who said, “Young people are in a vulnerable age range, where their brains are still developing and factors like executive function and control are not in place yet,” which “can affect impulsivity and coping.”
Related Links:
— “Suicides by drug overdose increased among youth, elderly and Black women in last five years: study “Shirin Ali, The Hill, February 2, 2022