The Taunton, Mass. house of suicide victim Carlene Balderrama is photographed Wednesday, July 23,... 
(ABC News Photo Illustration)
In Massachusetts, there were 16,173 such households that, like the Balderramas, faced foreclosure.
Nadine Kaslow, chief psychologist at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and a professor at Emory University's School of Medicine, said such financial stresses come attached with significant psychological consequences.
"There is no question that the economic downturn in our country is causing havoc with people's mental health," she noted. "It is very depressing to lose one's home. It represents loss of stability, a feeling of failure. ... It is scary and overwhelming."
Dr. Bruce Cohen, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and psychiatrist-in-chief of Boston's McLean Hospital, agreed.
"Loss of a home ranks with loss of a close loved one and loss of a job as among the top causes of extreme stress and despair for people," he said.
But for one reason or another, it appeared that Carlene Balderrama decided to deal with the family's flagging finances on her own. O'Berg said that according to Balderrama's husband, John, Carlene handled all of the family's financial matters.
"I had no clue," John Balderrama told The Associated Press on Wednesday, adding that Carlene had hidden from him the fact that she hadn't paid the mortgage in 42 months.
However, Nemeroff said such behavior may be more common than most would think.
"In many cases, folks have family who would help if they reached out and asked, but they are too embarrassed about it," he said.
For most, Nemeroff says, economic woes alone are seldom enough to tip the scales toward suicide. Rather, for some they could be a last straw -- the final huge problem that pushes them over the edge.
Still, there are many for whom the falling economy could conspire with existing psychological problems and stresses. Nemeroff worried that this, combined with the growing problem of suicide in veterans of the war in Iraq, could be enough to create a spike the past few years' relatively stable suicide rates.
In 2005, the most recent year for which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently has suicide statistics, 32,637 Americans took their own lives. In 2004, the number was 32,439, and in 2003 it was 31,484.
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