Emergency Department Visits Related to Suicidal Ideation or Suicide Attempt, 2008–2017

This Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Statistical Brief presents statistics on ED visits related to suicidal ideation or suicide attempt among individuals aged 5 years and older. The Brief uses the HCUP Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) to examine 2008–2017 trends in the population rate of ED visits related to suicidal ideation or suicide attempt by age group. The 2017 NEDS is used to provide data on patient characteristics and outcomes. In addition, maps based on the 2017 State Inpatient Databases (SID) and 2017 State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD) present State-level rates of ED visits related to suicidal ideation or suicide attempt. Maps are also presented that illustrate the variation in the highest rates within the State by patient location (i.e., counties in large metropolitan, small/medium metropolitan, or rural areas). Because of the large sample size of the HCUP data, small differences can be statistically significant. Thus, only differences greater than or equal to 10 percent are discussed in the text.