For American young people between 10 to 24 years old, the suicide rate rose 8 percent from 2003 to 2004, the highest single-year growth in 15 years, said U.S. health authority on Thursday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that the surge was following a decline of more than 28 percent from 1990 to 2003.
"This is the biggest annual increase that we've seen in 15 years. We don't yet know if this is a short-lived increase or if it's the beginning of a trend," said Dr. Ileana Arias, director of CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
"Either way, it's a harsh reminder that suicide and suicide attempts are affecting too many youth and young adults," she said.
For the 10-to-14-year-old females, suicide rate rose from 0.54 per 100,000 in 2003 to 0.95 per 100,000 in 2004, about 76 percent increase.
In the same period, males from 15 to 19 years old recorded suicide rate growth from 11.61 to 12.65 per 100,000, about 9 percent increase.
The report is an analysis of annual date from the CDC's statistics system, comprised of birth, death, marriage, divorce, and fetal death records in the United States.
The analysis also found that suicide methods went through changes. Instead of firearms that was the most common tool to commit suicide in 1990, most female teenagers resorted to hanging or suffocation in 2004. But firearms were still most commonly-used by suicidal young men.
Based on the alerting statistics, Arias called for more efforts to help parents, schools and health care providers prevent things that could increase risk of suicide.
"We need to build on the efforts dedicated to education, screening and treatment and bridge the gap between the knowledge we currently have and the action we must take," she said.
Dr. Keri Lubell, a behavioral scientist in CDC's Injury Center who led the study, said that parents and other caring adults should keep eyes on changes in youth "such as talking about taking one's life, feeling sad or hopeless about the future," and changes in eating or sleeping habits.
Source: Xinhua
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