New research says that the Great Recession of 2008 ago caused 5,000 additional suicides in 2009 alone. It was worse for those who'd tasted prosperity, and lost it.

Researchers linked 2009's higher unemployment rates to a 3.3% increase in suicides—primarily among men in relatively prosperous countries. From the LA Times:

In American countries, the greatest increase in suicides was seen in men between the ages of 45 and 64. In Europe, the biggest increase was in 15- to 24-year-old men...

The team found bigger increases in suicide rates in countries that used to have low unemployment.

The easy theory is: despair over unemployment destroying the will of family breadwinners to live. The messy realities, who knows. The study extended only through 2009.

Contemplating what the statistics would show happened after 2009: equally depressing.

[Photo: AP]