Mortality, or probability of death, from a suicidal act in the United States

The probability of death resulting from a suicidal act as a function of age is explored. Until recently, data on suicide attempts in the United States were not available, and therefore the relationship between attempts and completed suicide could not be systematically investigated. Now, with new surveillance of self-harm data from the Centers for Disease Control, our examination found that (1) the mortality among self-harmers fits an exponential function of age and (2) the logarithmic difference between female and male suicidal mortality increases in direct proportion to age from puberty to menopause. The mortality exponential function of age is a description that provides a life-span perspective of suicide and suggests data-informed criteria for future suicide and public health research.