A 2008 report by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health said approximately 8.3 million adults aged 18 or older had serious thoughts of suicide, 2.3 million made a suicide plan and 1.1 million attempted suicide in the past year.
Young adults 18 to 25 were more likely than older adults to seriously contemplate committing suicide, according to the report.
Of adults who attempted suicide in the past year, 62.3 percent received medical attention and 46 percent stayed overnight or longer in a hospital.
"The survey is actually very broad," said Joseph Gfroerer, director of the populations survey. "It covers the population age 12 and older. Within that, we can pull out the data on youth, we can pull out the data on young adults on up to age 25, and we can even look at specific ages like 17-year-olds."
Gfroerer and his team asked questions over computers, which required less face-to-face time with the respondents.
"Most of the questions are actually done in a self-administered format where the questions come up on a computer screen of a laptop computer, and the respondent would key in the answers privately," Gfroerer said.
Gfroerer said the survey has been around for almost 40 years.
"The survey has been done since the early 1970s," Gfroerer said. "We added the suicide questions in 2008, and they're still on the field now and we expect to keep them on the survey for years to come."
Gfroerer and his team were asked to put questions about suicide on their survey for the purpose of data gathering on suicide.
"In our office, we run this survey and it collects data on quite a few different topics," Gfroerer said. "We're often constantly consulting with data users and policy people and administrators who need data to make the survey include the questions and the issues that they need data on."
Not every student who considers committing suicide admits it, said Amy Davis, senior staff clinician of Auburn's Student Counseling Services.
"We don't always see every student on campus that's suicidal," Davis said. "We see the ones who are referred to us or who is self-present as feeling suicidal. Not all of our clients are suicidal. For those who are, we do a suicide risk assessment."
Davis said the SCS has multiple methods to help students deal with their suicidal thoughts.
"We offer individual therapy for all of the students, and we also offer referrals," Davis said. "If it's a more chronic long-term suicidality, we will offer a referral to the community for more long-term care. If it's more of an acute issue, we will see them in our office and use different types of therapy intervention to help them manage their level of stress, manage their level of anxiety, and hopefully, alleviate some of their symptoms."
The suicide rate has stayed steady between 2004 and 2009, Davis said.
Davis said suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. and that it is a significant cause of death among young adults.
"It's the 11th leading cause of death nationally," Davis said, "and it's the third leading cause of death between those ages 15 to 24, which is the age range we're dealing with."
Joeleen Cooper, also a senior staff clinician, attributes suicide to depression.
"I think a lot of times, suicidal thoughts are a symptom of depression," Cooper said. "Depression can be brought on by a variety of different factors. There is, of course, the genetic component to that where they might have a biological disposition. If there are people in their family who have had depression before, they might be more likely to have some depressive symptoms."
Cooper said there is no specific category of college student who struggles with thoughts of committing suicide.
'It's people from every class," Cooper said.
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