Alaska's suicide rate rose for the fourth year in a row in 2008, according to preliminary numbers from the state Bureau of Vital Statistics.

The statewide rate of 24.6 suicides per 100,000 people is the highest in more than a decade and a 25 percent increase since 2005, according to the Bureau's early figures.

"We are seeing an increase. What it's related to, it's anyone's guess," said James Gallanos, the state Division of Behavioral Health's lead suicide prevention coordinator.

It's a mistake to oversimplify the potential causes of suicide, Gallanos said, but he wonders if one element is the wounded economy. "The stresses caused due to the high price of fuel and food in rural Alaska may be a contributing factor."

New region-by-region suicide numbers for 2008 weren't available late Wednesday, but the suicide rate in rural Alaska has far surpassed the cities for decades. Alaska Natives, especially young people, are particularly at risk.

The average rate over the past 10 years for remote villages and towns in Northwest Alaska, for example, is more than three times the statewide average.

Citing the "critical" need for more research in the area, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski sent a letter to the new Secretary of Health and Human Services on Wednesday calling for the Department to pay for a $1.2 million study aimed at reducing suicide rates among Alaska Natives.

"We're hoping to raise the awareness of it within the agency -- kind of introduce the problem to the secretary," said Murkowski state director Kevin Sweeney.

The study was proposed by Commissioner Warren Zapol of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, a federal agency that promotes and recommends scientific studies in the Arctic.

According to Murkowski, the project would at least partly study genetics.

Paying for it, she wrote, would "enable the Institute of Medicine to determine the specific genes that contribute to major depressive disorders and alcohol abuse that would ultimately lead to targeted treatment options."

Commission Chairman Mead Treadwell pushed for the research at an Indian Affairs Committee meeting in February.

"The mental health problem cries out for research," Treadwell said, according to testimony on the commission's Web site. "Over the past two decades, the Indian Health Service and Alaska government have tried a variety of clinical and social work methods to improve Alaska Native mental health."

"They simply are not working," Treadwell said.

Like many statistics in Alaska, suicide figures can be deceptive because of the state's small population. A small change in the number of deaths can make the numbers jump from year to year.

Experts prefer to look at average numbers over multiple years. Gallanos said the five-year average in some rural regions, including the Nome region, declined in recent years, though they remain many times higher than the rest of the state.

Health officials are holding regional suicide prevention meetings across the state this spring and summer, Gallanos said.

City health officials in Ketchikan held a special meeting this month to tackle a rash of suicides there, while the state plans to train as many as 15 new suicide prevention instructors in late July in Anchorage.