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“This is an indicator that at least some of these suicidal acts are impulsive,” said lead author Katherine Hempstead, director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, N.J., and the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University.

Canadian psychiatrists say the baby boom generation has had higher rates of suicide at every increment across their lifespan, compared to previous generations.

“This group has always seemed to have been at increased risk of suicide. Now we’re seeing it manifest as a middle-age cohort,” said Dr. Valerie Taylor, psychiatrist-in-chief at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto.

There were 3,890 suicides in Canada in 2009, or 11.5 per 100,000 population. Those aged 40 to 59 had the highest rates. While males commit suicide at three times the rate of females, women are three to four times more likely than men to attempt it.

Last year, British researchers linked the recession with at least 10,000 additional “economic suicides” across Europe and North America, including Canada, where suicides rose by 4.5% from 2007 to 2009.

In the U.S., earlier studies found that suicide rates among adults aged 35 to 64 have increased approximately 40 per cent since 1999, while holding stable for other age groups.