Commission Examines Suicide
www.lvrj.com - November 10, 2001

State and local health officials convened Friday to address the issue of suicide in Nevada. The group explained the severity of the problem to the Legislative Commission's Subcommittee to Study Suicide Prevention. The panel was approved during this year's Legislature to examine why Nevada has the nation's highest suicide rate.

Nevada has a rate of 22.3 suicide deaths per 100,000 people, according to 1999 statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics. The national average is 10.7.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., couldn't make the meeting, but shared his concerns about suicide via audiotape. He wants more education and suicide prevention programs at both state and national levels.

"My dad committed suicide many years ago," Reid said. "He was depressed, but we didn't know it at the time, and we didn't know what the symptoms were."

A key speaker at the meeting, Dr. John Fildes, presented statistics to the panel and discussed ongoing suicide research in Nevada. Fildes is one of the primary investigators for the Suicide Prevention Research Center at the University of Nevada School of Medicine in Las Vegas.

"We're trying to develop a greater understanding of suicide risk, protective factors and programs that may be useful for prevention," Fildes said.

The center, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was developed to help prevent suicide nationwide through research, education and community-based programs.

Research focuses primarily on the West because the region has the highest suicide rates in the country, according to the CDC. The states include, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

It isn't clear why Western states tend to have higher suicide rates than other states, or why Nevada tops them all. Gambling doesn't seem to be a big factor in Nevada's rates because New Jersey, which has legal gambling in Atlantic City, has the lowest suicide rate in the country at 6.6 per 100,000 people, Fildes said.

"There is probably something in common about the culture of the intermountain West that contributes to the suicide rate," he said. "It may be related to the sparsity of mental health and support groups in the West."

Suicide was the fifth-leading cause of death in Nevada between 1994 and 1998, with 1,879 deaths. Car crashes, the seventh-leading cause of death, contributed to 1,578 deaths. The four leading causes of death include heart disease, cancer, pulmonary disease and stroke.

The panel will have several more meetings. The panel will make suicide prevention recommendations during the 2003 session. Recommendations could include increased funding for programs and research as well as the development of a statewide strategy to prevent suicide. The next meeting is early next year.