A new report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention says that suicide now claims more lives than car accidents, according to CBS News.
In 2010, the latest year with available data, more than 38,000 individuals committed suicide. In that same year fewer than 34,000 people passed away in a car crash.
The new study found certain demographics had a sharper increase in the number of people who took their own lives. One of those groups was middle-aged adults.
According to the report, in 1999, there were 13.7 suicide deaths for every 100,000 Americans between the ages of 35 and 64. In 2010 that number jumped to 28 percent.
"Suicide is a tragedy that is far too common," said CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden, in a news release. "This report highlights the need to expand our knowledge of risk factors so we can build on prevention programs that prevent suicide."
Compared to the suicide rates for middle-aged Americans, the suicide rates for Americans ages 10 to 34 and ages 65 or older did not see drastic changes.
According to the CDC, there will have to be a more stringent effort to combat middle-aged suicide rates. Most of the time efforts are focused on the youth and elderly.
The report found that suicide rates for middle aged men increased to 27.3 in 100,000 individuals in 2010 from 21.5 in 1999. The suicide rate among women rose from 6.2 per 100,000 in 1999 to 8.1 in 2010.
According to an interview Julie Phillips—an associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University who has studied suicide rates and had her work published—did with the New York Times, the information from the CDC report was “vastly underreported.” Phillips did not participate in the new study.
"We know we're not counting all suicides," she said.
Researchers speculated that the rise in middle-aged suicide rates could be due to the recent economic downturn, although no official reasons were given in the study. According to the CDC, suicide rates usually rise in time of economic turmoil.
The CDC also reported that baby boomers experienced higher suicide rates when they were teenagers. These latest statistics may indicate a continuation of that trend.
"Some of us think we're facing an upsurge as this generation moves into later life," Dr. Eric Caine, a suicide researcher at the University of Rochester, said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Economic downturn might not be the only reasons middle-aged Americans are committing suicide. They may also have to deal with health issues as well as growing responsibilities such as taking care of their parents and children.
According to government data, about 7 in 10 Americans will require long-term care sometime after the age of 65.
"The boomers had great expectations for what their life might look like, but I think perhaps it hasn't panned out that way," Phillips said in her interview. "All these conditions the boomers are facing, future cohorts are going to be facing many of these conditions as well."
The report was published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
