Teen Suicide: Girls are poisoning at an alarming rate. There is way to help.

[ad_1]

There is no easy way to say that over the last decade, the number of teenagers attempting suicide with poison has increased dramatically.

Data appear Wednesday in The pediatric journaland come from poison control centers. Overall, the study reveals that the rate of attempted poisoning has more than doubled among boys and girls.

The girls, however, explain the essence of the rise. The study reveals that attempts at poisoning among girls aged 10 to 12 years increased by 268% between 2010 and 2017, for example. For girls aged 13 to 15, the rate of poisoning increased by 143%.

Overall, it is estimated that by 2018, nearly 60,000 girls aged 10 to 18 have tried to poison themselves. In 2008, this figure was closer to 30,000.

The current study does not describe the poisons used (this analysis is forthcoming), but an excess of gelling vitamins at a high dose of opioids can be considered a poison if the intention was to self-harm.

The following is one of the most heartbreaking sets of graphics I've seen in an academic article. The number (and rate) of girls who have been poisoning suicide attempts since 2000 is shown in red.

The first shows boys and girls aged 10 to 12; the second shows boys and girls from 13 to 15 years old.

Another chart in the document shows that 29,000 girls aged 16 to 18 were poisoned last year – and this rate is significantly higher than in 2011.

The report also finds increases among women aged 19 to 24.

In general, attempts to poison are only fatal in 5% of cases. In this study, which examined all presumed auto-intoxications from 2000 to 2018 among people aged 10 to 24, 1,627,825 intoxications and 1,404 deaths were identified.

The results are a reminder of the troubling implications of the teen suicide crisis in the United States. According to John Ackerman, co-author of the study and coordinator of suicide prevention at the National Children's Hospital, deaths "are just the tip of the iceberg" of pain. Below that, "you've had some attempts, and millions of kids think life might be better if they were not alive."

Although the researchers do not have a clear explanation for this sudden increase, they are convinced that it must be remedied. Because, as the latest data shows, trends show no recent signs of reduction. It should be a wake up call.

Teen suicide is still rare in America. But that increases.

According to CDC reports, about 16% of teenagers plan to commit suicide in a given year. "It's an epidemic," says Mitch Prinstein, director of clinical psychology at Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina, who did not participate in this research.

But it is certainly a difficult subject to tackle. And if we talk about it carelessly, we could make the problem worse. Just this week, a study found that the TV show 13 reasons why – representing a young girl committing suicide for being bullied at school – may have resulted in a slight increase in the number of deaths by suicide.

Researchers warn that exhibitors are exposed to the idea that suicide is an effective way to manage their problems. It can be detrimental to expose young people to "plans to hurt themselves," says Ackerman, or to the idea that suicide is common.

The problem is important enough for policy makers to take it much more seriously.

Between 2009 and 2017, the number of high school students who planned to commit suicide would have increased by 25%. Adolescent suicide deaths also increased by 33% during this period. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death among adolescents after an accident (traffic accident, poisoning, drowning, etc.). It is important to note that suicide deaths among adolescents are still rare. Only 10 in every 100,000 teens aged 15 to 19 die this way. But even one death is one too many. And all attempts, anxiety and depression that can lead to it must also be addressed.

While teens tend to poison more suicide attempts than teenagers, boys tend to resort to more lethal means, such as firearms. As a result, as girls try to die more often, boys die in greater numbers.

Experts are unsure of the exact cause of these worrying trends: Assumptions include the stressful effects of the recession, the changing relationships of teens in digital spaces, growing social isolation, the stressors of the opioid crisis which has repercussions on children, the contagion of suicide, the fact that teenagers can more easily find out how to kill themselves online, among others. But there does not seem to be a single cause.

"The reason why we do not know why children do this is because suicide is not a unique diagnosis, it's a result that many paths can lead to," explains Prinstein.

Access to lethal means also plays a role. Children are more likely to commit suicide when a gun is accessible. The greater availability of opioids could also play a role.

We do not need to know the cause of the increase in the number of suicides and poisonings to help

We may not know the exact cause of recent trends in suicide. But we know how to help teens at risk. Therapists can help and the science-based therapies that help (see the box above for resources). Schools and teachers can help. Parents can help. Friends can help. Anxiety is not inevitable.

But as we see, this is not enough. "If you look at the numbers, you do not have enough psychologists, social workers, counselors, other therapists to physically respond to the clearly expressed need," says Ackerman. "Even if all mental health staff were involved in treating suicide and life-threatening behaviors, you would not be able to fully meet that need."

Thus, as a society, we can do more to work in search of potential political solutions.

"If you replace depression or flu suicide, you would see a flu vaccination warning on every street corner, inviting us to say that it's a public health crisis," Prinstein says. "We should do screenings, we should do educational programs in all schools. All parents should talk about suicide to their child. It's time to talk less and act more. "

He says that the teacher and schools need to be better trained to spot children at risk and that parents should be comfortable asking their children if they are suicidal.

"There has long been a myth that simply asking a child if he or she is suicidal could give him or her an idea and increase risk," he says. "And we now know that it's completely wrong."

Kathryn Gordon, a clinical psychologist and researcher who recently left her academic work for a private practice, says parents can learn to "listen in a non-critical way." Simple listening, she says, can be a first step.

"As a parent," she says, it's easy to want to step in and start solving the problem immediately. "But children often see it as a feeling of disdain or discomfort," she says. "If you are open and listen, often children and adolescents can start to solve their problems on their own or ask for help."

A recent study shows that caring adults can save lives. But it will take more than parents and professional therapists to help him.

States can work with schools to filter the number of suicides and depression among more children. And there must be more money for research.

In 2017, the National Institutes of Health spent $ 37 million on research grants for suicide prevention. This is trivial when compared to the $ 6.6 billion spent on cancer research. Of the 295 NIH-funded disease research areas, in 2018, suicide prevention was the primary focus. Research on West Nile virus – which kills about 137 people a year – is better ranked. In 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 2,877 suicide deaths among 13-to-19-year-olds nationwide.

Interventions "need to start early, even at primary school," says Ackerman. "And certainly in college, you have to ask yourself how to search for an answer."

[ad_2]

Source link