August 18, 2014 – At Risk

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Anchor lead: More and more middle-aged people are showing up in emergency departments after attempting suicide, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Emergency departments nationwide are seeing many more people in the 45 to 64 year old age range attempting suicide, a recent study reported.  Adam Kaplin, a suicide expert at Johns Hopkins, says the rapid increase in suicide and suicide attempts in this age range is very concerning, but another issue also emerged from this study.

Kaplin: Of the 68,000 people who were in that age range, 45 to 64, who showed up in an emergency room after a drug-related suicide attempt, only 7% ended up going and being admitted to a psychiatric unit.  If people came and were having a heart attack, what percentage of those people would be admitted?  Just about all of them.  So if only 7% of the people are coming to attention to the people who could actually help them of course that’s a huge problem.   :31

Kaplin says the problem needs to be addressed from a number of angles.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.