Youth suicide attempts have doubled in the last decade

Emergency room visits to children who had suicidal thoughts or attempted suicide doubled in the last decade, according to a nationally representative study released on Monday.

An analysis of data from US emergency rooms from 2007 to 2015 found that the number of annual visits for suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts among children aged 5 to 18 nearly doubled – from 580,000 to , 12 million.

And a significant portion of the children who were brought to the emergency department were young: approximately 43% of visits for thoughts or attempted suicide occurred in children aged 5 to 12 years.

"These numbers are very alarming," study author Brett Burstein told HuffPost, an emergency physician at the Montreal Children's Hospital of the McGill University Health Center in Montreal. "Not only did he double during the study period; we also found in this large and nationally representative sample that there was a high proportion – more than what had been previously identified – that arose at a very young age group . "

"This trend is likely to accelerate," added Burstein. "This includes younger children than previously thought and the burden is huge."

The new findings, published in JAMA Pediatrics, reflect a 2018 study that found that the proportion of suicidal visits to children's hospitals more than doubled from 2008 to 2015, from 0.66% of all visits. in 2008 to more than 1.8% visits in 2015. This 2018 study revealed about 115,000 hospitalizations for suicidal thoughts or suicide attempts during this period, which is significantly lower than the most recent study.

The discrepancy is due to the fact that the most recent survey focused on hospital records of general emergency services serving adults and children, as opposed to children being referred to emergency departments of pediatric hospitals.

"We asked the question," Is this problem bigger – or worse than that? [previous study] can even suggest? "said Burstein.

Suicide is now recognized as a national public health crisis. It is the second leading cause of death in Americans aged 10 to 34 years.

It is still unclear why ideas and suicide attempts seem to have risen so dramatically over the last decade and it is highly likely that many factors will come into play.

One possibility is that parents and health care providers better recognize the risk factors in their children and bring them to get help, which would explain an increase in visits to emergency services. Yet only about 12% of hospitalizations in the new study were suicidal, compared to about 88% for suicide attempts. This, according to Burstein, suggests that the increase in the number of hospitalizations is probably not due to the early detection of at-risk children. Rather, it suggests a worrying trend to increased suicidal behavior in American children.

Similarly, there are no simple answers on how to handle the growing crisis, although Burstein stated that parents should be aware of potential signs of risk in their own children and that society in general should do a better job by connecting children to community resources and continuing care. .

"There is what we do on an individual basis," said Burstein, "and then there is what we do on a societal basis. very worrying. "

If you or someone you know needs help, call 1-800-273-8255 to get the national number. Life line of suicide prevention. You can also send a HELLO SMS to 741-741 for free, 24-hour support of the crisis text line. Outside the United States, please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention for a database Resource.