Suicide Rate for Baby Boomers Increases, Reversing Trend

“You might think that the higher rates in adolescence would lead to lower rates later because the most suicide prone people would be gone but that doesn’t appear to be the case,” Ellen Idler, a sociologist at Emory University and one of the authors of the report, said in a press release. “Clinical studies often show that knowing someone who committed suicide is considered a risk factor for later doing it yourself, and that may be one factor here. The high rates in adolescence could actually be contributing to the high rates in middle age.”

The authors did note, however, that there could be a "period effect" at play, in which social and economic factors affect the suicide rate. They referred to a 1993 study that found middle-aged men were in a relatively stable period at home and at work; by the '80s, women were likely to be in the labor force at a level similar to men. "To the extent that recent social role, economic, or other changes have eroded these traditional midlife protections for both males and females, they provide a period explanation for the post-1999 surge in suicide rates," the authors conclude.

Other reasons for the upward trend, according to the report, include substance abuse and illness.