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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Suicide rates higher in Western mountain states

A University of Florida study has found that rates of suicide are higher in the mountain states of the West than in more urban areas of the U.S. The nationwide study, spanning three decades, found mountain location to be a factor whether people lived in, had left or were just visiting some of the mountain states. Suicide levels for visitors of Western states were actually a little higher than they were for people who lived there, according to Ilan Shrira, a psychologist who worked on the study.

The research, scheduled to be published this year in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, examines individuals’ characteristics, access to guns, population density and availability of mental health services.

Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon and Wyoming had the highest rates of suicide during the survey period, 1973 through 2004. Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York had the lowest. (Read more)

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