The total number of deaths from suicide have increased worldwide to more than 800,000, a shocking new study finds.
Researchers from the University of Washington say between 1990 and 2016, the total increased by nearly seven percent from 765,000 to 817,000 across 195 countries and territories.
Additionally, suicide rates were higher globally for men than they were for women.
But - despite the increase in cases - the age-adjusted global suicide death rate fell over the same time period.
'Suicide rates are going down but we're not winning the war on suicide,' Dr Paul Nestadt, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told DailyMail.com.
He says that attempts to curb deaths have only worked in some parts of the world - like the UK and Sri Lanka - but not in nations like Russia and the US.
A new study has found the total number of deaths from suicide have increased to more than 800,000, but that the global mortality rate has fallen by 33 percent
Suicide has been recognized as a public health issue by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The United Nations agency said it wants to decrease suicide mortality worldwide by 10 percent between 2012 and 2020.
'It's an ambitious goal but suicide is multi-factorial and happening in heterogeneous countries. So while in most countries it's going down, it's going up in others like the US,' said Dr Nestadt.
For the study, published in The BMJ, the team looked at data from the 2016 Global Burden of Disease Study between 1990 and 2016.
Based out of the University of Washington, the GBD study evaluates disability and mortality around the world from diseases, injuries and risk factors.
The researchers found that over the 27-year-study period, the total number of suicide deaths increased by 6.7 percent from about 765,000 to 817,000.
However, the global mortality rate decreased by about 33 percent from 16.6 deaths per 100,000 in 1990 to 11.2 deaths per 100,000 in 2016.
Additionally, researchers determined that 34.6 million years of life were lost from suicide.
When it came to gender, men took their lives more frequently than women with a rate of 15.6 deaths per 100,000 than women at seven deaths per 100,000.
But women experienced a greater decrease in mortality rate from 1990 to 2016 at 49 percent than men did at 24 percent.
'In general, male suicides have always noted to be higher than women,' said Dr Nestadt.
He says that although women attempt suicide much more frequently, men choose more lethal methods.
'One had to do with choice of method,' he said. 'Men use methods that are much more violent such as guns in the US. So it’s more fatal much more often'.
He says the trend, however, does not hold true in countries that are less developed.
'In less developed countries, you'll see the ratio between men and women is not as large,' said Dr Nestadt.
'They'll use pesticides [to commit suicide] and those are much more egalitarian. Everyone - the farmer, the farmer's wife - has access to them.'
He added that some studies have shown than men may be more vulnerable to economic downturn because they believe themselves to be in the traditional role of provider for their families.
Countries in eastern Europe such as Russia, Lithuania and Ukraine had higher rates due to greater access to weapons and alcohol, experts say
For example, in Japan, there is a period between 1991 and 2010 known as the Lost Score, referring to a period of
