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The number of emergency room visits due to suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among children increased to 1.2 million in 2015. More than half of these visits involved children aged 5 to 11 years old ( Sasin Tipchai | pixabay )
The number of children who have visited an emergency room because of suicidal thoughts or suicide attempts has nearly doubled in the last 10 years.
The researchers reported that between 2007 and 2015, the number of annual visits of children aged 5 to 18 years increased from 580,000 to 1.12 million. In addition, they warned that almost half of the visits were to children aged 5 to 11 years.
"These numbers are very alarming," said Brett Burstein, a physician at the Montreal Children's Hospital of the McGill University Health Center and author of the Huffington Post study. "Not only did they double during the study period, but we also found in this broad and nationally representative sample that there was a high proportion – more than what had been previously identified – who presented themselves to a very young age group. "
A disturbing trend
The study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics used publicly available data from the Ambulatory Medical Care Survey of National Hospitals, administered by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study found that the average age of children diagnosed with suicidal ideation or attempted suicide was 13 years old. At the same time, 43% of visits were children aged 5 to 11 years old.
The results are alarming, but this does not surprise the child psychiatrists. The rate of depression and suicide among the younger population has increased over the years. In fact, the National Institute has identified suicide as a major public health problem.
Main cause of death
In the United States, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death. It is the second leading cause of death among 10 to 34 year olds and the fourth among 34 to 54 year olds.
The study, however, has its own limitations. The researchers admitted that the data may have incorrectly included self-harm as a suicide attempt. Due to the nature of the data, the study also failed to identify the common causes of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.
Gene Beresin, executive director of the Clay Center for Healthy Young Minds in Mbadachusetts and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, suggested that the increase in suicidal behavior could be due to stress.
"Children are feeling more pressure to succeed, more pressure at school and more worried about making a living than in previous years," he told CNN. Another possible reason that he has identified is social media and cyberbullying.
Parents who are beginning to better recognize the signs of depression and provide their children with the help they need also contribute to this increase.
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