Just being in Vegas raises risk of suicide, study finds

Thu, Nov 13, 2008 (2 a.m.)

The risk of suicide is significantly increased by visiting or living in Las Vegas, and leaving town reduces the risk that a person will take his own life, a former UNLV researcher has found.

Reader poll

The finding is important because although Las Vegas is notorious for its high suicide rate, few academics have studied the problem.

Researcher Matt Wray, assistant professor of sociology at Temple University, and colleagues at Harvard University, have further clarified the extent of the problem with their study, “Leaving Las Vegas: Exposure to Las Vegas and Risk of Suicide.”

It does not answer the question of why people commit suicide in the city, but parses mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics in a manner that lays a foundation for future analysis, said Wray, who was a professor at UNLV from 2001 to 2008.

According to the study, which examined suicides between 1979 and 2004:

• Clark County residents were 54 percent to 62 percent more likely to commit suicide than U.S. residents elsewhere.

• Clark County visitors were more than twice as likely to commit suicide than if they stayed home.

• Travelers visiting Clark County were twice as likely to commit suicide here compared with travelers going elsewhere.

• Residents who traveled away from Clark County decreased their likelihood of committing suicide by 13 percent to 40 percent.

“That’s a significant reduction in your risk,” Wray said. “It’s a way of saying that if you’re feeling blue you should take a break from Las Vegas.”

Suicide is rare compared with other causes of death. In 2005, the most recent year statistics are available, there were 480 suicides in Nevada and 307 in Clark County. The Nevada suicide rate of 20 per 100,000 residents is almost twice the national rate.

The study, which will be published in the December edition of the peer-reviewed journal Social Science & Medicine, challenges one of the common attitudes about suicide in Las Vegas, Wray said. There’s a general resistance by Las Vegas leaders to admit the extent of the problem, he said, and suicide prevention is “not at the top of anyone’s agenda.”

“Given the magnitude of the problem, one can argue it should be,” he said.

The study does not answer the Las Vegas version of the chicken and egg conundrum: Are suicidal people attracted to Las Vegas, or does something about the city lead people to kill themselves?

The scenarios that explain the high rate of suicides in Las Vegas vary and need further research, Wray said.

“One would be ‘gambler despair’ — someone visits Las Vegas, bets his house away and decides to end it all,” he said. “Another would be that those predisposed to suicide disproportionately choose Las Vegas to reside or visit. And, finally, there may be a ‘contagion’ effect where people are emulating the suicides of others ... Some people may be going there intent on self-destruction.”

Wray said the evidence points to something about Las Vegas that causes more suicides. The finding that suicide risk remains high in Las Vegas while there are declines in other counties suggests there could be something harmful about the city, Wray said. He also noted the finding that the risk of suicide is reduced when people leave Las Vegas.

“If suicide was really about the people, it seems they would take their suicide risk with them,” he said. Experts have speculated that problems with addiction to gambling and drugs and alcohol, lack of mental health resources and rapid growth also may contribute to the suicide problem.

Las Vegas’ fast growth amplifies “social isolation, fragmentation and low social cohesion, all of which have long been identified as correlates of suicide,” Wray said.

The study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program.

Discussion: 11 comments so far…

By Lenny_V

11/13/08 at 2:29 a.m.

Suggest removal

Of course it's addictions and gambler despair that's behind the high suicide rates. Anybody could tell you that.
By denro

11/13/08 at 6:37 a.m.

Suggest removal

Very well said. Plain and simple.
By RafaelFreitas

11/13/08 at 8:06 a.m.

Suggest removal

I already lived in Vegas, just during 4 months, and thinking about this subject, my opinion about it is that maybe depressive people go to Vegas looking for something that they don't find and hence they commit suicide that they already were able to do. But its strange 'cause Vegas is a wonderful place that everything happens there.
By LT2LV

11/13/08 at 10:55 a.m.

Suggest removal

I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but my guess is that the industries that LV is notorious for, gambling, drinking, sex, are things that people with already low self-esteem can easily get lost in and ultimately, use suicide as their only way out.
By cruiseone

11/13/08 at 11:43 a.m.

Suggest removal

I agree with the obvious reasons, such as gambler's dispair, but I think there is another reason that the previous poster touched on.
People take seriously the "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" slogan. Many do things they would never do at home, especially things that violates their own moral codes. The first thing that comes to mind is the sex industry. A married man, for example, comes to Vegas, hires a prostitute, and realizes he has to go home and face his wife. This would probably never happen at home. Things like this can certainly lead to suicide. A strong religious person would succumb to even great dispair and possibly radical solutions such as suicide. Sometimes it does seem easier to die than face living.
By californiagrl

11/13/08 at 12:09 p.m.

Suggest removal

there are alot of down and out people in las vegas, but i have never been treated so kindly and respectfully by local peoples in any other city in the us, i lived in vegas for a few years and life is a little tougher in vegas. many workers are paid very little for the great customer service and jobs they do, but overall there is a spirit of hope and working together, perhaps the suicide rate is from out of staters running from problems they have had for awhile.
By mikegino

11/13/08 at 12:54 p.m.

Suggest removal

I have tremendous empathy for the retirees who nested in Las Vegas not realizing that a trash can often is filled with undesireable objects. I never have been anywhere (including two combat zones) where there is so much repressed anger and angst. I repeatedly admonish my wife that the errant driver who just cut in front of her and simultaneously displayed an obscene gesture might have just lost his or her last quarter in a slot machine and has nothing left to lose.
By 9ballguy

11/13/08 at 2:50 p.m.

Suggest removal

I have to say that I think the suicide issue has a great deal to do with Las Vegas's portrayal in the media and preoccupation with the image that it is only for the beautiful and wealthy only. I have been visiting Las Vegas since 1990 and it never used to be this way. Just look at the "Ultra Lounges" as they are called. I saw a program on the travel channel last week promoting these clubs and if I were a woman I would think that I had better not set foot in one of these venues without major cosmetic surgery beginning with Breast augmentation!! One has to wonder if they will even be admitted to these clubs( by arrogant doormen) in order to have the privelege of paying $25.00 per person cover charges and then pay $15.00 for a drink! I feel sorry for young people today growing up in this environment when they already have so much pressure from the media that they have to live up to a certain image in this society and Las Vegas has magnified this pressure many times over. Just look at the billboards around town advertising strip clubs for example. I would never raise my kids in such an environment. I sound like a big time prude but actually am not. I'v always enjoyed my frequent visits to Las Vegas but this is my theory on the suicide issue without even going into additional theories on gambling.....
By SolarFloral

11/13/08 at 8:59 p.m.

Suggest removal

As a two-time visitor to this town, I have never felt any suicidal tenancies whatsoever, and never wanted to simply end my life while I was here; I mostly felt sad about leaving this place, but NEVER...wanting to "off" myself. I feel that Las Vegas is a great town and has the potential to still become even greater.

However, I feel that the reason why people have become (or became) suicidal while in Vegas is merely due to the fact that some the mindset of this town's visitors (and/or locals) is set on the following: (a,) not dealing with sheer reality, (b,) not using due dilligence or common sense, (c,) heavy emphasis on building up unrealistic matierialistic goals, (e,) not taking the time to solve problems for thier community (schools, homeless, etc.,) (f) a lack of a human social factor that people can relate to, (g,) risky behavior, (h,) greed of all kinds.

This,comibined with a grown population, corporate culture, and other issues causes the town to feel if it has no sense of a human factor, resulting in everything from altruistic mantra sayings (i.e.: "What Happens Here, Stays Here," "this place is recession-proof," "prositution is leagal here," "thre are no clocks in the casinos," etc.,) to regengade-like delusions of grandeur (tax evasion, unlawful prositituon, drug traffiking, conspiracy theroists, lack of compasson, safety, "the Mob was better than the coprorations," "the US Governemnt are out to get us," etc.)

In the end, some people feel "burned," others felt as if it was thier last chance in life. And then they take a wrong turn.

And with the recent recession that hit Las Vegas, combined with the Mortgage, Real Estate and Financial Crisis, high energy and food prices and the loss of jobs, dampens the mood further.

I feel that Las Vegas, in order to survive must be honest with itself: fix its problems, get involved with community concerns, raise awarness in such issues such as suicide. Relying heavily on the casinos to help out a community may not always be the right answer; they already have issues of thier own....and need to fix thier problems in order to survive.

Las Vegas, and Clark County, as a whole, will be facing a terrible fate, if it continues to turn a blind eye to the issues, including the issue of suicide.

A Vegas in denial is fatal to Vegas itslef.
By picklepie

12/11/08 at 4:46 a.m.

Suggest removal

Has anyone considered the bombs that were exploded underground years ago, maybe those toxins are effecting visitors and residents in some way, all those mushroom clouds that people innocently watched back in the day have had to have dispursed in some kind of way into the earth it's self around there. Just a thought.
By LeavingLasVegas

4/10/09 at 8:14 p.m.

Suggest removal

I DO think that the Depression has something to do with the toxins perhaps, and, perhaps more importantly, the lack of GREEN and LIFE!!! This is a DESERT and was not inhabited by anyone, save for some outlaws, until the Mob started the gambling scene.
All I know is that I've been forced to live here--due to chronic health issues and hoped that I would find some support from my family. The longer my parents have lived here, the worse they get, due to the gambling. My Mother has become a liar and a compulsive slot machine player.
I have never felt so suicidal in my life. And my Medical problems got way worse when I moved here the first time after my divorce. I ended up scared to leave due to the medications my doctor was prescribing. Then when I finally did get the courage to leave, I felt so wonderful for 2 years. I was a different person... creative and vibrant and social again. I'm literally afraid to go out here due to the road rage. I made a pact in August when I ended up returning not by my own will--long story--that if I'm not out of here by this August, I'm taking my own life. I hope I will be gone. Sadly, it's very difficult to get employment these days from out of state and I can't get an apartment without employment... Wish me luck. I don't want to become a statistic, but this city is LITERALLY KILLING ME!!!