Actor Robin Williams's death by apparent suicide highlights an alarming trend of rising suicide rates among adults aged 35 - 64. Beth Israel Center's Dr. Igor Galynker discusses on Lunch Break with Sara Murray. Photo: Getty


The death of 63-year-old comedian and actor Robin Williams in an apparent suicide came as a shock to many. But according to U.S. health officials, people in Mr. Williams's age group are committing suicide at an increasing rate.

 Suicide rates for adults aged 45 to 64 rose 40% from 1999 through 2011, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The suicide rate for these middle- to late-middle-aged adults is higher than any other age group, including youth and the elderly, according to an analysis by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.



"We don't hear about middle-age or older people who kill themselves unless they're a star like Robin Williams," said Jill Harkavy-Friedman, vice president of research at the foundation. "Because it's so shocking when a younger person dies, there's a tendency of re-reporting and romanticizing."

 Researchers say baby boomers face challenges that are unique to their generation. High rates of suicide in adolescence for boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, could be carrying over to middle age, said Julie Phillips, an associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University who has published research on the subject. Economic pressures since the financial crisis, deteriorating health conditions and the increased use and abuse of prescription drugs are other possible factors, Ms. Phillips said.
Other factors also have increased social isolation for boomers: "They haven't shown an increase in religiosity as they age as have prior cohorts, and boomers are more likely to be single—divorced or never married—and without children than prior cohorts," she said.

 Historically, the elderly have been the most at-risk for suicide—but those aged 45 to 64 surpassed them over the past decade as the boomers entered middle age. The increase has helped push the total number of deaths caused by suicide in the U.S. higher than those caused by auto accidents. In 2011, there were 39,518 suicides, compared with 32,367 deaths in car crashes, according to the CDC and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.


Actor Robin Williams, wearing a camouflage jacket, entertains troops as part of a USO Holiday Tour in Baghdad, Iraq, on Dec. 16, 2003. European Pressphoto Agency


San Francisco's Center for Elderly Suicide Prevention has seen a surge in calls to its crisis-intervention line since Mr. Williams's reported death Monday, said Patrick Arbore, the center's director. The callers who are about the same age as the late movie star want "some kind of reassurance that they're going to be OK," he said.

 Dr. Arbore said that baby boomers in particular have resisted the idea of growing old, trying hard to adhere to the "60 is the new 40" movement. "We're really wanting to skip old age altogether," he said. "It's more apparent in the aging boomers."
Dr. Arbore said the financial downturn looms large in the rise in suicides, especially in situations where older workers have been laid off and didn't have the skills to find a new job.

 Suicide-prevention efforts have been largely aimed at youths and at the elderly in the past and not those in the middle, experts say. "Middle-aged adults got kind of left out in the thinking of where to focus to resources for suicide prevention," said Alex Crosby, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC. "It's important for us to examine more closely and put more resources into that population."