UN Med School to conduct suicide study

The University of Nevada School of Medicine in Las Vegas has been chosen over several prominent national medical schools to study suicide in the intermountain states.

The medical school is receiving a three-year, $500,000 federal contract under the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill.

The Suicide Prevention Research Center will be one of only 12 such centers in the United States. It will also provide statistical data to Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

"Our hope is to work with existing community groups to help them develop ways to intervene and work with medical groups," said Dr. John Filds, medical director of University Medical Center. He will co-direct the center with Dr. G. Thomas Shires.

Nevada has consistently ranked among the states as first in suicides for several years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the most recent figures, the state recorded 24.5 suicides per 100,000 people compared to a national average of 12.5 per 100,000.

The CDC also reported that drug and alcohol overdoses were twice as frequent in the West as in the Northwest.

Filds said the SPRC will be located in an existing university facility at 2040 W. Charleston Blvd. It will consist of a staff of statistical experts and computer programmers.

The group will work with local community-outreach programs and coordinate activities with such national organizations as the American Association of Suicidology, the Critical Illness and Trauma Foundation and the Inter-Mountain Regional Emergency Medical Services Coordinating Council.

Filds said this is the first time suicide will be studied as a public-health problem. It also is the first time, he added, for the federal government to recognize that suicide needs to be studied.

SPRC came about through the efforts of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who inserted language in the appropriations bill for the $500,000 grant.

Dorothy Bryant, executive director of the Suicide Prevention Center in Las Vegas, said it is always important to look at suicide statistics. She looks forward to working with the SPRC in gathering information.

Recently the Suicide Prevention Center -- which consists of fewer than 30 volunteers -- faced closure. It needed between $20,000 and $25,000, Bryant said, to remain open for the remainder of the year.

A story in the Las Vegas Sun last week helped generate $10,000 in donations and several pledges, Bryant said.

"We feel confident the community will support us to keep going on," Bryant said. "We'd like to have 50 volunteers and only have about 23 now."

In the past, the CDC has cited such conditions as high divorce rates, a transient population and lack of family support groups as factors contributing to high suicide rates. Nevada scores high in all these categories.

Some people feel gambling may also contribute to suicidal tendencies. But Dr. Richard McCleary, a researcher from the University of California, Irvine, disagrees.

He told representatives at the American Gaming Association meeting in Las Vegas last week that his investigations in Las Vegas, Reno and Atlantic City didn't support such theories.

Yet Bryant said that even though gambling isn't directly tied to Nevada's suicide rate, people with addictions are more prone to attempt suicide.

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