Teen Suicide Rates Remain Abnormally High - internet, alcohol, guns possible risk factors

[The Straight Story]

Teen Suicide Rates Remain Abnormally High

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 2 -- Suicides among 10- to 19-year-olds in 2005 remained well above expected levels for a second straight year, researchers here said.

From 1996 to 2003, teen suicide rates underwent a steady decline, but in 2004, the overall rate suddenly increased 18% from the previous year.

In 2005, the most recent year for such data, the rate was somewhat lower than the previous year -- 4.49 per 100,000 versus 4.74 in 2004 -- but the level was still well above the 95% confidence limit of projections based on the previous trend (95% CI 3.47 to 4.15).

So reported Jeffrey A. Bridge, Ph.D., of Nationwide Children's Hospital, and colleagues in the Sept. 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. He said the finding suggests that the jump seen in 2004 was not a statistical anomaly.

...

Other possible factors identified by Dr. Bridge and colleagues included changes in known risk factors, such as access to alcohol or guns, and the influence of MySpace, Facebook, and other Internet-based social networking tools.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/Depression/tb/10755