Rising suicide rate in Massachusetts

Between 2000 and 2009, more than 4,500 Massachusetts residents died as a result of suicide. At 8.1 deaths per 100,000 people, the suicide rate in 2009 -- the most recent year for which data are available -- was the highest it had been since 1992. Early figures from 2010 indicate that the rate continued to climb, while calls to suicide hotlines that year increased by 14 percent.