TORONTO - Canada's largest mental health and addiction research centre says more than 230-thousand Ontario adults "seriously contemplated suicide" in 2013.
The Toronto-based Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto says that amounted to 2.3 per cent of Ontario's adult population.
CAM-H says its annual mental health survey, based on responses from just over three-thousand Ontario adults, asked specifically about suicide for the first time.
The survey also found a sharp rise in self-rated poor mental health, from 4.7 per cent in 2003 to 7.1 per cent in 2013 -- or 716-thousand Ontario adults.
But the figure for those aged 18 to 29 rose from about three per cent in 2009 to 12 per cent last year.
The study also shows the rate of cannabis use among Ontario adults climbed to 14 per cent last year from 8.7 per cent in 1996, but with 19 per cent reporting daily use.
CAM-H says the survey also found that cigarette smoking rates among adults have declined from 27 per cent in 1996 to 17 per cent last year.
It says daily smoking fell from 23 per cent in 1996 to 13 per cent in 2013.
When it comes to daily alcohol use, CAM-H says adults who reported consuming alcohol at least once a day rose from five per cent in 2002 to 8.5 per cent in 2013.
The results also showed that women are drinking at higher rates, from 2.6 per cent in 2001 to 5.6 per cent in 2013.
But as consumption rates rise, CAMH says drinking and driving rates continue to drop -- from 13 per cent in 1996 to five per cent last year.
The survey also found the use of non-medical prescription opioids by adults plunged from 7.7 per cent in 2010 to 2.8 per cent last year, but held steady at about seven per cent among 18-29 year olds.
