Rising Rates of Suicidal Behaviors and Large Unmet Treatment Needs Among US Adults With a Major Depressive Episode, 2009 to 2020

Abstract

Objective: To examine recent 12-year trends in the incidence of suicidal ideation (SI) and suicide attempts (SAs) and receipt of mental health treatment among individuals experiencing a past-year major depressive episode (MDE). Patients and Methods: Using data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health, we estimated the annual percentage of individuals with MDE who reported past-year SI or SAs and their use of mental health services from 2009 to 2020 and calculated odds ratios (ORs) for longitudinal change adjusting for potentially confounding factors. Results: During our study period, the weighted unadjusted proportion of patients with a past-year MDE who reported SI increased from 26.2% (668,690 of 2,550,641) to 32.5% (1,068,504 of 3,285,986; OR, 1.38; 95% CI, 1.25 to 1.51) and remained significant in the multivariable-adjusted analysis (P