Pasadena, California - In the last hours of her life last week, Wanda Dunn, 53, took the time to settle her affairs, taking two small plants to a neighbour as well as some cheap clothes that she asked him to give to charity.

Then she returned to the home she had lived in since childhood, set it on fire and shot herself in the head with a handgun.

Dunn's desperate actions came the day before she was to have been evicted from the stucco house first bought by her grandparents decades ago.

She was an unemployed nurse and had been forced to sell the house several years ago when she couldn't make the payments on a loan that she had taken out.

The buyer even agreed to let her continue renting the house, but he was then also unable to make payments, prompting the foreclosure.

Making the tragedy even more painful, Dunn had repeatedly told neighbours that she would rather die than leave. "We knew it was going to happen," said Steve Brooks, who lived across the street and kept an eye on Dunn.

"It was nobody's fault; it was everybody's fault," he adds.

Dunn's apparent suicide came just a week after a recently fired investment manager shocked the nearby community of Porter Ranch by killing his family and then himself.

Indian-born Karthik Rajaram, 45, was a former millionaire whose fortune was decimated in the stock market crash.

He became so despondent that he killed his mother-in-law, wife and three children before turning the gun on himself.

"This is a perfect American family behind me that has absolutely been destroyed, apparently because of a man who just got stuck in a rabbit hole, if you will, of absolute despair, somehow working his way into believing this to be an acceptable exit," Los Angeles police Deputy Chief Michel Moore said.

He was speaking outside the family's upscale suburban house during a nationally-televised news conference. It was a stark reminder of how the American dream could turn sour so suddenly.

But for mental health experts at the American Psychological Association the tragedies reinforced the findings of a recent survey that found skyrocketing levels of finance-related stress, with the brunt of that burden bearing down on women.

The study, released in early October, found that almost half of Americans say that they are increasingly stressed about their ability to provide for their family's basic needs. Eight out of 10 said that the economy was a significant cause of stress.

Compared with men, more women said they were stressed about money (83 per cent vs. 78 per cent), the economy (84 per cent vs. 75 per cent), job stability (57 per cent vs. 55 per cent), housing costs (66 per cent vs. 58 per cent) and health problems affecting their families (70 per cent vs. 63 per cent).

Especially vulnerable were women aged 44 and up. This age group, many of whom have placed their entire retirement savings in the plunging stock market, were the most likely to report the economy as a significant stressor, according to the poll.

"The economy is taking an emotional and physical toll on America, especially among women," said psychologist Katherine Nordal, APA's executive director for professional practice.

"People report more physical and emotional symptoms," she said. "If Americans continue to experience these high levels of stress for prolonged periods of time, they are at risk of developing serious illnesses."

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline says it has experienced a sharp increase in the number of calls it has received this year. By the end of September it had fielded 228,600 calls, compared to 184,100 in the same period last year.

But spokeswoman Amanda Lehner said that because of privacy guideline "we have no way of tracking them or tying them to the financial crisis."

However, a recent report in the Augusta Chronicle referenced data collected from the statewide suicide hotline, where key words used in calls, such as mortgage, debt and foreclosure, identified the concerns of callers.

From July to September, there was a 64-per-cent increase in the number of calls referring to financial crisis compared to the same months two years ago. (dpa)