ED visits for suspected suicide attempts fell 7% overall: 5 things to know

Emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts declined overall from Jan. 1, 2021 to Dec. 31, but adolescents continued to have the highest visit proportions and adults age 26 and older saw increases, according to a CDC study published June 25 in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Researchers from the CDC analyzed National Syndromic Surveillance Program data from 3,184 emergency departments that met CDC data quality criteria, representing 80.6% of ED visits reported to the surveillance system during the study period. They evaluated monthly and annual trends by sex and age group using visit proportions per 10,000 ED visits.

Here are five things to know:

1. Overall ED visit proportions declined. The proportion of ED visits for suspected suicide attempts fell 7% from 16.6 per 10,000 ED visits in 2021 to 15.5 per 10,000 in 2025, despite monthly visit numbers remaining relatively stable.

2. Adolescents remained the highest-risk group. Patients age 12-17 had the highest visit proportion throughout the study period at 82.2 suspected suicide attempt visits per 10,000 ED visits overall. Females in this age group had the highest rate at 120.0 per 10,000 visits.

3. The largest declines occurred among adolescents and females. Compared with 2021, visit proportions fell 20.8% among adolescents ages 12-17 and 10.7% among females by 2025.

4. Older adults experienced increasing visit proportions. Visit proportions rose across adult age groups 26 years and older, with the largest increases among adults age 55-64 (15.2%) and those 65 and older (12.3%).

5. More than 833,000 suspected suicide attempt visits were identified. Researchers analyzed 833,335 suspected suicide attempt ED visits among more than 527 million ED visits. Females accounted for 60.3% of suspected suicide attempt visits.

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