The rise in U.S. suicides from 2000 to 2010 is largely attributable to an increase in hangings and suffocations – particularly among men and women ages 45 to 59, research published Tuesday morning finds. Reporting in the December issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy have pinned down the trends behind suicide’s sobering rise in recent years. Noting that suicide has surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of injury death in the United States, the authors used data from the CDC’s Web-Based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) to get a better handle on who tried to kill themselves, and how/Jennifer LaRue Huget, Washington Post. More here.

Question: Why do you think more middle-age people are committing suicide?