RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Firearm Suicide Crisis: Physicians Can Make a Difference
JF The Annals of Family Medicine
JO Ann Fam Med
FD American Academy of Family Physicians
SP 265
OP 268
DO 10.1370/afm.2522
VO 18
IS 3
A1 Evan V. Goldstein
A1 Laura C. Prater
A1 Seuli Bose-Brill
A1 Thomas M. Wickizer
YR 2020
UL http://www.annfammed.org/content/18/3/265.abstract
AB Firearm suicide receives relatively little public attention in the United States, however, the United States is in the midst of a firearm suicide crisis. Most suicides are completed using a firearm. The age-adjusted firearm suicide rate increased 22.6% from 2005 to 2017, and globally the US firearm suicide rate is 8 times higher than the average firearm suicide rate of 22 other developed countries. The debate over how to solve the firearm suicide epidemic tends to focus on reducing the firearm supply or increasing access to behavioral health treatment. Ineffectual federal firearm control policies and inadequate behavioral health treatment access has heightened the need for primary care physicians to play a more meaningful role in firearm suicide prevention. We offer suggestions for how individual physicians and the collective medical community can take action to reduce mortality arising from firearm suicide and firearm deaths.