# Does Celebrity Rehab have a higher than average suicide rate?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-celebrity-rehab-have-a-higher-than-average-suicide-rate/650837>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 19, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-celebrity-rehab-have-a-higher-than-average-suicide-rate/650837 "2013-02-19T22:17:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-celebrity-rehab-have-a-higher-than-average-suicide-rate/650837/1 "2013-02-19T22:17:09Z")

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Compared to your garden variety rehab program (if there is such a thing), does Celebrity Rehab have a higher than average suicide rate?

Rob

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**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-celebrity-rehab-have-a-higher-than-average-suicide-rate/650837/2 "2013-02-19T22:35:10Z")

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Mindy McReady was the first suicide, wasn’t she? Mike Starr and Joey Kovar both died of drug overdoses, Jeff Conway died of health problems due to long term substance abuse, and Rodney King drowned while intoxicated.

While it is certainly possible to calculate the suicide rate (1 suicide per 51 total, if I added up the cast members listed on wikipedia correctly) I don’t think you really end up with a statistically valid number. The sample size is too small to be meaningful.

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**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-celebrity-rehab-have-a-higher-than-average-suicide-rate/650837/3 "2013-02-20T05:14:57Z")

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This is what I get for posting while I am working.

Ignorance fought.

Thanks,  
Rob

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-celebrity-rehab-have-a-higher-than-average-suicide-rate/650837/4 "2013-02-21T04:40:18Z")

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In some other SD threads I’ve seem on the Celebrity Rehab death rate question some docs and other professionals dealing with drug abuse commented and indicated the overall death rate of the participants is pretty much in line with what you would expect of a group that size with serious drug addiction and drug abuse issues.

Bottom line, being a hard care drug addict usually entails a limited life span.