July 20, 2008
On the Edge
Boston Globe Sunday Magazine
Cambridge writer Peter Bebergal
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2008/07/20/
Excerpt"
What clinicians need is some other measure beyond external evidence that could assess
whether someone like Eric is capable of suicide in the near future. Four years after my
brother's death, Harvard researchers at MGH are experimenting with a test they think
could help clinicians determine just that. It focuses on a patient's subconscious thoughts,
and if it can be perfected, these researchers say it could give hospitals more of a legal
basis for admitting suicidal patients.
******************************************************************************
Dec 13, 2007
CDC: Suicides among middle-aged spikes
By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer
http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2007/12/cdc_suicides_am.html
in at least 25 years, a new government report said Thursday.
The rate rose by about 20 percent between 1999 and 2004 for U.S. residents ages 45
through 54 — far outpacing increases among younger adults, the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention reported.
In 2004, there were 16.6 completed suicides per 100,000 people in that age group. That's
the highest it's been since the CDC started tracking such rates, around 1980. The previous
high was 16.5, in 1982.