BALTIMORE — Nearly 49,000 people died by suicide in 2024 and researchers are now looking at patterns among those deaths to build better prevention strategies.

September is National Suicide Prevention Month and one Johns Hopkins researcher says the current approach isn't cutting it.

"It hasn't really been working. Our suicide rates have been climbing," Dr. Paul Nestadt, medical director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Suicide Prevention, said.

Nestadt says suicide can't be predicted on an individual level, which means prevention has to happen at a broader scale.

"Because we can't predict risk, we need to look at universal prevention strategies, public health, population level strategies," Nestadt said.

His research has identified common themes among people who have died by suicide. Rates are higher in Indigenous communities and among white men and middle-aged and older people are particularly affected, especially by firearm.

Loneliness is a common factor, as is access to lethal means. Higher rates are also seen among people with psychiatric conditions like depression and schizophrenia and among those with substance use issues, particularly when opiates are involved.

Nestadt says opiates are especially lethal and raise the risk of overdose.

"If we use measures like making sure that there are not readily lethal accessible means in front of people or if we make sure that everyone has access to mental health care, not just people deemed at high risk for suicide, we're going to have a lot more life saving prevention accomplished," Nestadt said.