New data shows suicide deaths across the United States dropped in 2020, although the full picture remains unclear, say experts, who worry that a sharp rise in fatal drug overdoses and possible cause-of-death misclassification in people who had COVID-19 at the time of their suicide, may be masking the true number.
Preliminary data in a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)—based on figures from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) National Vital Statistics System (NVSS)—shows that there were 2,677 fewer deaths by suicide in 2020 than a year earlier.
