Suicide, suicide attempts and self-inflicted injuries are much more common than we think they are.
In the US, there were 38,364 suicide in 2010. That’s on average 105 suicides per day nationwide.
If we could divide evenly per state, that’d be over 2 suicides per day on average in each of the 50 US states.
What is even more striking….
US Suicide Statistics (2010)
Emergency room visits for self-inflicted injury: 713,000
All suicides, number of deaths: 38,364
Deaths per 100,000 population: 12.4
Cause of death rank: 10
Source: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/suicide.htm
(CDC is viewed in the US as a reliable source of health statistics)
This means there were on average 18.6 visits to emergency rooms for each suicide.
I don’t know how many suicide attempts this represents; i bet it’s a lot!
Moreover, look at the evolution from 2001 to 2010.
US Suicide Statistics (2001)
Emergency room visits for self-inflicted injury: 400,000
All suicides, number of deaths: 30,622
Deaths per 100,000 population: 10.8
Cause of death rank: 11
Source: http://www.suicide.org/suicide-statistics.html
This means there were on average 13 visits to emergency rooms for each suicide.
Moreover ER visits for self-inflicted injuries went up 78%, while suicides went up 25%.
25% is already a big jump up… 78% is very alarming.
The total US population only went up 8.5% during those 9 years.
That the number of (completed) suicides did not go up more, might partly be due to the progress of medicine. Hospitals are able to save people from injuries that they were not able to save 9 years earlier.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and suicide risks have been studied. It is known that 33% of youth who commit suicide have features, or traits, of BPD. This number is 400 times higher than the general population, and young women with BPD have a suicide rate of 800 times higher than the general population. Moreover it is estimated that 10%, or one in ten, people with BPD commit suicide.
Early intervention and treatment is critical to obtaining a successful outcome.
Source: http://bpdresourcecenter.org/factsStatistics.html
This shows increased awareness and prevention of PDs is very much needed.
PDAN has taken on the tasks of:
1) providing accurate information
2) to make more people aware, and
3) to educate people with the goal of prevention of personality disorders.
Please follow us at www.facebook.com/PDAN or visit our website: www.pdan.org.
Thank you!
