Teenage Suicide

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention released their numbers on teenage suicide. The numbers are horrifying, and often it is too late for the teen before their parents realize that their child was not just showing red flags, but flapping them all around. Four out of five suicide victims will give clues as to their plan of suicide.

The study was conducted on American individuals between the ages of 10 and 24. They haven't seen as big of an increase as they did between the years of 2003 and 2004. Within that year 4599 families buried their children, this was an increase of 367 individuals in that year. Plenty of experts will tell you that there are some pretty obvious signs often with the children, which if detected could potentially save their lives. However, they are now saying that they believe that the increase is largely due to the decrease of prescriptions issued for anti-depressants in this age group. If that is the cause then why take them off the medication that could potentially save their lives? Seems logical doesn't it? And you would think the answer would just be simple. This is because they too have done studies which showed that because of some of these drugs, teens committed suicide. In December of 2006, a study was done in Finland which showed that the medications increased a persons suicide attempts. However, their risks of actually succeeding in their attempt decrease with their use. The study also shows that hangings and shootings are not more common due to their use, and those who don't get treatment for their depression issues are more likely to complete their suicide attempts than those who are treated.

Unfortunately males who commit suicide do it at a rate of five times more often that that of a girl. And those are just the ones that are 'successful.' Girls just try more often. The typical method for males to commit suicide is by firearm, in girls it is ingestion of medication or poison and also of hanging or suffocation. These seem to be less destructive and thought to be the reason the girls choose these methods.