Lifetime Suicide Attempts in Otherwise Psychiatrically Healthy Individuals

Oquendo, M. A., et al. (2024).

JAMA psychiatry, e235672.

Advance online publication.

https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.5672

Abstract

Importance: Not all people who die by suicide have a psychiatric diagnosis; yet, little is known about the percentage and demographics of individuals with lifetime suicide attempts who are apparently psychiatrically healthy. If such suicide attempts are common, there are implications for suicide risk screening, research, policy, and nosology.

Objective: To estimate the percentage of people with lifetime suicide attempts whose first attempt occurred prior to onset of any psychiatric disorder.

Design, setting, and participants: This cross-sectional study used data from the US National Epidemiologic Study of Addictions and Related Conditions III (NESARC-III), a cross-sectional face-to-face survey conducted with a nationally representative sample of the US civilian noninstitutionalized population, and included persons with lifetime suicide attempts who were aged 20 to 65 years at survey administration (April 2012 to June 2013). Data from the NESARC, Wave 2 survey from August 2004 to September 2005 were used for replication. Analyses were performed from April to August 2023.

Exposure: Lifetime suicide attempts.

Main outcomes and measures: The main outcome was presence or absence of a psychiatric disorder before the first lifetime suicide attempt. Among persons with lifetime suicide attempts, the percentage and 95% CI of those whose first suicide attempt occurred before the onset of any apparent psychiatric disorders was calculated, weighted by NESARC sampling and nonresponse weights. Separate analyses were performed for males, females, and 3 age groups (20 to <35, 35-50, and >50 to 65 years).

Conclusions and relevance: In this study, an estimated 19.6% of individuals who attempted suicide did so despite not meeting criteria for an antecedent psychiatric disorder. This finding challenges clinical notions of who is at risk for suicidal behavior and raises questions about the safety of limiting suicide risk screening to psychiatric populations.

About Three-in-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated

Gregory Smith

Pew Research

Originally posted 14 DEC 21

The secularizing shifts evident in American society so far in the 21st century show no signs of slowing. The latest Pew Research Center survey of the religious composition of the United States finds the religiously unaffiliated share of the public is 6 percentage points higher than it was five years ago and 10 points higher than a decade ago.

Christians continue to make up a majority of the U.S. populace, but their share of the adult population is 12 points lower in 2021 than it was in 2011. In addition, the share of U.S. adults who say they pray on a daily basis has been trending downward, as has the share who say religion is “very important” in their lives.

Currently, about three-in-ten U.S. adults (29%) are religious “nones” – people who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religious identity. Self-identified Christians of all varieties (including Protestants, Catholics, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Orthodox Christians) make up 63% of the adult population. Christians now outnumber religious “nones” by a ratio of a little more than two-to-one. In 2007, when the Center began asking its current question about religious identity, Christians outnumbered “nones” by almost five-to-one (78% vs. 16%).

The recent declines within Christianity are concentrated among Protestants. Today, 40% of U.S. adults are Protestants, a group that is broadly defined to include nondenominational Christians and people who describe themselves as “just Christian” along with Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians and members of many other denominational families. The Protestant share of the population is down 4 percentage points over the last five years and has dropped 10 points in 10 years.

By comparison, the Catholic share of the population, which had ticked downward between 2007 and 2014, has held relatively steady in recent years. As of 2021, 21% of U.S. adults describe themselves as Catholic, identical to the Catholic share of the population in 2014.

Within Protestantism, evangelicals continue to outnumber those who are not evangelical. Currently, 60% of Protestants say “yes” when asked whether they think of themselves as a “born-again or evangelical Christian,” while 40% say “no” or decline to answer the question.

The info is here.

Suicide rates climbing, especially in rural America

Misti Crane
Ohio State News
Originally published September 6, 2019

Suicide is becoming more common in America, an increase most pronounced in rural areas, new research has found.

The study, which appears online today (Sept. 6, 2019) in the journal JAMA Network Open, also highlights a cluster of factors, including lack of insurance and the prevalence of gun shops, that are associated with high suicide rates.

Researchers at The Ohio State University evaluated national suicide data from 1999 to 2016, and provided a county-by-county national picture of the suicide toll among adults. Suicide rates jumped 41 percent, from a median of 15 per 100,000 county residents in the first part of the study to 21.2 per 100,000 in the last three years of the analysis. Suicide rates were highest in less-populous counties and in areas where people have lower incomes and fewer resources. From 2014 through 2016, suicide rates were 17.6 per 100,000 in large metropolitan counties compared with 22 per 100,000 in rural counties.

In urban areas, counties with more gun shops tended to have higher suicide rates. Counties with the highest suicide rates were mostly in Western states, including Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming; in Appalachian states including Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia; and in the Ozarks, including Arkansas and Missouri.

The info is here.

Same-sex couples raising children on the rise

By Elaine Quijano
CBS Evening News
Originally published June 16, 2012

On this Father's Day Eve, we take notice of a sea change. The Census Bureau estimates that the percentage of same-sex couples raising children has more than doubled in just 10 years, from 8 percent in 2000, to 19 percent in 2010. We visit one of the couples behind the numbers.

As a same-sex couple, Sean McGill and Luigi Caiola say they never contemplated fatherhood.

"We never imagined or never thought that children would be an option for us," said McGill.

But after almost 10 years together, they were drawn to the idea of parenting.

The entire story is here.