Suicide

Some TV movies that dramatize teen-age suicides in hopes of shedding light on the problem and discouraging other adolescents from ending their lives actually may have just the opposite effect, particularly on troubled teens, according to a new study.Researchers at Columbia University's Department of Child Psychiatry in New York analyzed the content of several made-for-TV movies on teen-age suicide and found that many of them portrayed the teen-ager so positively that he or she could become a role model for teens who already were contemplating suicide.

After falling for more than a decade, the U.S. suicide rate has climbed steadily since 1999, driven by an alarming increase among middle-aged adults, researchers said yesterday. A new six-year analysis in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that U.S. suicide rate rose to 11 per 100,000 in 2005 from 10.5 per 100,000 in 1999, an increase of just under 5 percent. The report found that virtually all of the increase was attributable to a nearly 16 percent jump in suicides among people ages 40 to 64, a group not commonly seen as high risk.

"Night Falls Fast," by Kay Redfield Jamison. Knopf. 432 pages. $25.So many people throughout time have died from suicide, written about it, tried to make sense of it. In this new book, Kay Redfield Jamison attacks this complex, emotionally charged topic without fear. She has created a single, fresh text that answers the question so many have agonized over for so long: Why?In a sweeping, authoritative look at suicide, laced with the compelling tales of those who died or nearly died at their own hands, including herself, Dr. Jamison exposes the truth: Suicide is not one isolated moment of madness for otherwise rational people, but mostly an impulsive act of a patient trying to end the awful pain of a psychiatric illness.

As state legislators prepare to debate a bill making it a felony to assist in a suicide, opponents say a new poll suggests that Marylanders would prefer a statute legalizing such assistance.When asked to choose between the two options, respondents preferred a law specifically permitting assisted suicides by a margin of about 3 to 1, according to the random survey conducted since Jan. 1.Sidney Hollander, of the Towson marketing research firm that polled 500 Marylanders, said respondents' answers were affected only minimally by their religious affiliation, although people who attend religious services are more frequently likely to disapprove of suicide under any circumstances.

The 51-year-old rape suspect who tried to suffocate himself Sunday at the Howard County Detention Center remained hospitalized yesterday, the jail's director said.William Kirk Evans of the 13000 block of Rhapsody Lane, Silver Spring, is improving at Howard County General Hospital, said James N. Rollins, Detention Center director. He described Mr. Evans as conscious and talking, and he expects him to remain in the hospital another three days.Jail psychiatrists will evaluate Mr. Evans to determine if he should be placed on 15-minute suicide watches when he returns to the jail, Mr. Rollins said.

A 33-year-old Cockeysville man with a history of mental problems committed suicide yesterday morning by leaping in front of a tractor-trailer on westbound Interstate 70, west of Ellicott City, Maryland State Police said. Police closed the westbound lanes for about 90 minutes while emergency workers investigated and cleared the scene, Trooper Shaft Hunter said. The man, whose name was not released at the request of his family, left no note, but police were able to determine it was a suicide from witness accounts of the 7:15 a.m. accident, Hunter said.

A 36-year-old Salisbury woman who was serving a five-year sentence for assault was found dead, apparently by suicide, Sunday at the state's prison for women in Jessup, prison officials said yesterday. The woman, whose identity was not released, tied a sheet around her neck and hanged herself from a vent in her cell, said George Gregory, a prison system spokesman. Correctional officers making their rounds discovered the woman hanging in the cell just before 2 p.m., Gregory said. Attempts to revive her were unsuccessful, he said.

Assisting in a suicide would become a crime in Maryland under legislation being proposed by Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr.In a 15-page opinion released yesterday, Mr. Curran urged state lawmakers to act on the issue promptly to pre-empt the type of legal questions raised in Michigan over the activities of "suicide doctor" Jack Kevorkian.Mr. Curran said that he was not aware of similar physician-assisted suicides occurring in Maryland but noted that the state is one of only 20 that does not outlaw it.Maryland law is unclear on the subject, he said.

WASHINGTON -- The special prosecutor chosen to investigate President Clinton's Arkansas land dealings says he plans a broad inquiry that would include questioning the president and his wife, Hillary, under oath and an examination of any possible links to the suicide of a senior White House aide.The prosecutor, Robert B. Fiske Jr., is a New York lawyer and former Republican U.S. attorney in Manhattan. Speaking with reporters yesterday after Attorney General Janet Reno announced the selection, he said Ms. Reno had given him a wide grant of authority to conduct "a thorough, complete and impartial" criminal investigation.

A Columbia man threatening to kill himself held police at bay for two hours yesterday afternoon and forced authorities to close the 12000 block of Little Patuxent Parkway for 45 minutes, Howard County police said.About 2 p.m., the man, 47, called dispatchers and said he had stabbed himself and intended to commit suicide, police said.Police negotiators and tactical teams went to his Clary's Forest neighborhood, waited for two hours, then entered his apartment without incident, said Sgt. Morris Carroll, a department spokesman.