A recent study has said that suicide rates in the U.S. have shown an increase largely due to an increase in suicides among middle aged white men and women. This increase has come about after a decade long decrease in suicide rates.

The study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine said white people in the age group of 40 to 64 have "recently emerged as a new high-risk group for suicide." White women constituted the largest increase in suicides with a 4 % increase although white men still make up the largest number of people who kill themselves though there rate has increased by 3 %.

The rates in the African Americans had reduced while in the case of Asians and Native Americans it was stable during the similar time period. Overall the suicide rates increased in the early 1980’s and then saw a decrease from 1986 to 1999 after which there has been an increase of 0.7 % per annum.

The study was conducted by Guoqing Hu, PhD, from Central South University in Changsha, China and co-author Susan Baker, MPH, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Baker says they are not sure what the reason for the increase is. "While it would be straightforward to attribute the results to a rise in so-called mid-life crises, recent studies find that middle age is mostly a time of relative security and emotional well-being."

She says more research is needed to "explore societal changes that may be disproportionately affecting the middle-aged in this country."

Economic conditions could be one factor that is a trigger in the increase in suicides and things could get worse if economic conditions continue to decline. "This is a concern, especially when one looks at the high rates during the Great Depression," says Baker.

Seetal Dodd, Ph.D., a senior fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia, says that in men suicide rates tend to fluctuate with the economic conditions.

"There is a considerable risk that the current economic situation may result in a further spike in the suicide rate for men of working age, especially if we start to see an increase in unemployment and a decrease in housing affordability and consumer sentiment," Dodd says.

Robert Bossarte, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester in New York, said, "There's something unique about the life circumstances of white, middle-aged males that is contributing to this risk," he says. "The key is getting people into treatment and getting people to use the resources that are available to them."

Baker said, "Historically, suicide prevention programs have focused on groups considered to be at highest risk, teens and young adults of both genders as well as elderly white men. This research tells us we need to refocus our resources to develop prevention programs for men and women in their middle years."