MOSCOW, October 4 (RIA Novosti, Daniil Nizamutdinov) - There are about 60,000 suicides in Russia every year, twice the number of deaths caused by traffic accidents on its notoriously dangerous roads, a leading Russian psychiatrist told a press conference Tuesday.
Tatyana Dmitriyeva, director of Moscow's Serbsky Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry, said people ages 45-55 were in the high-risk group. "These are mature people who have found themselves facing some new life choices, facing a problem they cannot solve on their own," she said.
Dmitriyeva also said many young people in Russia were suicidal. "It strikes me that one of the reasons cited for suicide among young people is a lack of understanding on the part of adults, a lack of understanding on the part of peers, and the indifference of the people around. This lack of understanding is an enormous tragedy."