THE INVISIBLE ILLNESS

Suicide was the tenth leading cause of death for all ages in 2013.

There were 41,149 suicides in 2013 in the United States—a rate of 12.6 per 100,000 is equal to 113 suicides each day or one every 13 minutes.

Based on data about suicides in 16 National Violent Death Reporting System states in 2010, 33.4% of suicide decedents tested positive for alcohol, 23.8% for antidepressants, and 20.0% for opiates, including heroin and prescription pain killers.

Suicide results in an estimated $51 billion in combined medical and work loss costs.

Among adults aged ≥18 years in the United States during 2013:

• An estimated 9.3 million adults (3.9% of the adult U.S. population) reported having suicidal thoughts in the past year.

• The percentage of adults having serious thoughts about suicide was highest among adults aged 18 to 25 (7.4%), followed by adults aged 26 to 49 (4.0%), then by adults aged 50 or older (2.7%).

• An estimated 2.7 million people (1.1% ) made a plan about how they would attempt suicide in the past year.

• The percentage of adults who made a suicide plan in the past year was higher among adults aged 18 to 25 (2.5%) than among adults aged 26 to 49 (1.35%) and those aged 50 or older (0.6%).

• An estimated 1.3 million adults aged 18 or older (0.6%) attempted suicide in the past year. Among these adults who attempted suicide, 1.1 million also reported making suicide plans (0.2 million did not make suicide plans).

Among students in grades 9-12 in the U.S. during 2013:

• 17.0% of students seriously considered attempting suicide in the previous 12 months (22.4% of females and 11.6% of males).

• 13.6% of students made a plan about how they would attempt suicide in the previous 12 months (16.9% of females and 10.3% of males).

• 8.0% of students attempted suicide one or more times in the previous 12 months (10.6% of females and 5.4% of males).

• 2.7% of students made a suicide attempt that resulted in an injury, poisoning, or an overdose that required medical attention (3.6% of females and 1.8% of males).

Males take their own lives at nearly four times the rate of females and represent 77.9% of all suicides.

Females are more likely than males to have suicidal thoughts.

Suicide is the seventh leading cause of death for males and the fourteenth leading cause for females.

Firearms are the most commonly used method of suicide among males (56.9%).

Poisoning is the most common method of suicide for females (34.8%).