Why US suicide rate is on the rise

A new government study released reveals that suicide has been on the rise nationwide since 1999. The figures were released in the week when the deaths of designer Kate Spade and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain brought the issue to the fore.

In the days following Spade's death, the US suicide prevention hotline - 1-800-273-8255 - saw a 25% spike in calls, the Wall Street Journal reported.

International research has shown an apparent "contagion" effect after high-profile suicides.

But what has spurred such a steady increase in American suicides?

In 17 years, 30%

That's how much the overall suicide rate has increased in more than half of US states in that time, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The overall rise nationwide is about 25%.

It means that around 16 out of every 100,000 Americans will take their own life.

Nearly 45,000 Americans took their own life in 2016 alone.

According to CDC data, suicide increased among all sexes, ages, races and ethnic groups.

Lead researcher Dr Deborah Stone told the BBC that the agency had been tracking the rise for some time.

"Knowing the rates were increasing, we [wanted to] look at state level increases and contributing factors," Dr Stone says.

"There were 25 states that had increases of more than 30% - that was a new finding for us."

Nearly all of those states are in the western and Midwestern regions of the US.

Why are suicide rates increasing?

While there is no single factor that leads to suicide, Dr Stone says relationship issues and financial troubles tend to be top factors contributing to suicide across the country.

She also notes that some western states have some of the highest rates of suicide historically, which could be related to the fact that they tend to be more rural.

Rural states, she explained, are still recovering from economic downturns. People also tend to be more isolated, without access to proper care. And, these states have been hit hard by the opioid epidemic.

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Prof Julie Cerel, president of the American Association of Suicidology, noted that having better reporting standards could account for some of the increase, but also pointed to a lack of adequate funding for mental health research and preventative care.

"Our mental health systems are just really struggling across the country," Prof Cerel says. "In terms of training mental health professionals, we're not doing a great job."

As of 2018, only 10 states mandate suicide prevention training for health professionals.

And Prof Cerel raised another related, though often sidelined, public health issue - firearms.

"The gun debate in the US has been about the horrific school shootings, and we want to prevent those, but the vast majority of deaths from firearms are suicides," she says.

In fact, two-thirds of gun-related deaths in America are suicides, according to the CDC.

"We just don't talk about that in the US because there are stigmas against mental health. People think suicides are different - why should they want gun control? Nobody in their family is going do that."