Citation

Shim RS, Rodriguez CI. Am. J. Psychiatry 2023; 180(12): 871-873.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, American Psychiatric Association)

DOI

10.1176/appi.ajp.20230819

PMID

38037408

Abstract

Suicide, a leading cause of death in the United States, is a critical public health issue (1). Although suicide affects people of all ages, some groups have higher suicide rates than others. The priority data letter by Joseph et al. in this issue offers important data on the trends in suicide among Black women in the United States (2). In the first study examining the epidemiology of suicide among Black females in the United States by geographical region, the authors used the National Center for Health Statistics' Multiple Cause of Death 1999-2020 database to estimate age-period-cohort effects of suicide rates among Black women aged 15-84 years and assess trends by census region. The study finds a concerning increasing trend in suicide death among the youngest Black girls and women born in recent years. The authors also identified state and regional variation and suggest this might guide geographically targeted prevention efforts. For context, their work is consistent with data that suicidal behaviors are increasing among minoritized youth (3). This work adds to the growing evidence that there is an urgent need to increase mental health care access, particularly among Black girls and women, and reduce other forms of structural racism (4).

Suicide and suicidal behaviors are influenced by negative conditions or factors. Among these are the social determinants of health, including racism and discrimination, adverse childhood experiences, poverty, lack of educational opportunities, food insecurity, housing instability, and barriers to mental and medical health care (1, 5). For Black women, structural sexism and racism combine to create intersectionality, in which an individual may experience multiple marginalized identities that interact to increase risk factors for suicide and suicidal behaviors (6). The data on mental health care access is also sobering. In 2018, 69% of Black adults and 67% of Hispanic/Latino adults did not receive any treatment for mental health problems according to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (7, 8). Joseph and colleagues (2) cogently describe stressors that may be particularly relevant to Black adolescents, such as cyberbullying and online racial attacks (9), and relevant to Black women in their late 20s, including intimate partner violence, neighborhood violence, and poverty (10, 11). ...

Language: en

Keywords

Suicide; Women; Disparities; Suicide and Self-Harm