Teenage suicide in the United States

According to a 2023 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents between the ages of 10 and 14, and the third leading cause of death for those between 15 and 25 [1] In 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of ChiId and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children's Hospital Association released a joint statement announcing a youth mental health crisis in the US.

In 2015, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention ranked suicide as the 8th leading cause for American Indians/Alaska Natives.

[6] Potential signs include threatening the well-being of oneself and others through physical violence, a desire to run away from home, property damage, giving away belongings, joking about/referencing suicide, using drugs, isolating themselves, sleeping too much or too little, fatigue, despair, and extreme mood swings, among other things.

[11] Black youth deal with the challenges of normal adolescence but also face issues created by systemic racism and discrimination.

Racial disparities in the health care system and other institutions and the stigma associated with mental illness create barriers for black adolescents to access and obtain treatment.

Institutional and systemic racism, overt and implicit, impact black youth's physical and emotional well-being.

Some psychiatrists argue that the increase is due to the decline in prescriptions of antidepressant drugs like Prozac to young people since 2003, leaving more cases of serious depression untreated.

[13] Despite the language of the study, however, the results appear to have been directly conflicted by the actual suicide rates in subsequent years.

[14] In 2008, researchers found that the rate of suicide attempts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth was higher than among the general population.

[15] In 2012, according to some groups, this is linked to heterocentric cultures and institutionalized homophobia in some cases, including the use of LGBT people as a political wedge issue like in the contemporary efforts to halt legalizing same-sex marriages.

[17] Bullying of LGBT youth has been shown to be a contributing factor in many suicides, even if not all of the attacks have been specifically addressing sexuality or gender.

Depression is caused by a number of factors, from chemical imbalances to psychological make-up to environmental influences.

[21][22] According to a 2019 survey, 50% of female pupils and one-third of high school students reported having continuous feelings of melancholy or hopelessness, a 40% rise from 2009.

[24] A Facebook internal study found that 13.5% of teenage girls say Instagram makes thoughts of suicide worse.

[25] A 2009 study argued that limiting young people's access to lethal means, such as firearms, has reduced means-specific suicide rates.

[26][27] Child access prevention (CAP) laws were put in place with the intention to reduce gun related deaths of those under the age of 17.

CAP laws first focus is on negligent storage of firearms to encourage gun owners to safely store weapons and limit accessibility.

These laws were a response to high volumes of children dying by suicide, crimes, and accidents, with the highest number of deaths in 1993.

These signs can mean that a person is in need of immediate attention from health officials or a suicide prevention organization.

Someone who is making threats may be helped by recommending they talk to their family, religious leaders, clinical professionals, or suicide prevention organizations.

The people considered to have had a close relationship with the victim should be given counseling as soon as possible, and then be referred to any additional treatment if needed.

[43] According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), approximately 49% of the student population within the educational system have been diagnosed with or treated for depression.

[44] A 2016 study found that underclassmen are less likely to commit suicide compared to upperclassmen due to a lack of worry over bills or work.