Every day, 14 teens take their own lives
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a new report showing an 8% rise in suicide among youths, the largest one-year increase in 15 years. Additionally, teen suicides by hanging/suffocation and poisoning have risen dramatically. The news is a somber reminder of the importance of youth suicide-prevention efforts.
CDC - Most people are uncomfortable with the topic of suicide. Too often, victims are blamed, and their families and friends are left stigmatized. As a result, people do not communicate openly about suicide. Thus an important public health problem is left shrouded in secrecy, which limits the amount of information available to those working to prevent suicide. The good news is that research over the last several decades has uncovered a wealth of information on the causes of suicide and on prevention strategies.
UPI.com-Almost 10 percent of drug-related U.S. emergency room visits involved teen suicide attempts — 72 percent by female teens, U.S. health officials
say.
A study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration finds the drug-related hospital emergency department visit by an adolescent as a suicide attempt is double the rate of those age 25 and older.
Prescription drugs were involved in more than 9 out of 10 of these drug-related suicide attempt cases, but there were differences in the drugs used by different age groups and genders.
For example, acetaminophen was the most commonly used substance involved in hospital emergency department visits by female adolescents attempting suicide — 28.5 percent — while 49.9 percent of females age 25 or older used anti-anxiety drugs.
Similarly, adolescent males admitted for drug-related suicides were more than three times as likely to have used anti-psychotic drugs compared with 14.3 percent of their female counterparts.
More than 90.2 percent of teens who sought hospital treatment for attempted suicide with antidepressants
received follow-up care, but 52.4 percent of adolescent cases involving ibuprofen received therapy. More than 83 percent of the cases involving adolescents using alcohol received follow-up care, but 59.4 percent of alcohol-related cases among those age 25 got treatment for alcohol, the study said.
