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Suicide rate among teenage girls hit 40-year high: Report

Thursday, 10 August 2017 3:40 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 11 August 2017 3:21 AM ]

Suicide rates doubled among teenage girls and grew by more than 30 percent for teenage boys in this age group between 2007 and 2015, new research finds.

New figures from the US government show that the suicide rate for American teenagers rose significantly between 2007 and 2015, amid an increase in suicides in the overall population.

Suicide rates doubled among girls aged 15 to 19 and grew by more than 30 percent for teenage boys in this age group between 2007 and 2015, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

The suicide rate among teenage girls in 2015 was at a 40-year high, the figures show.

"These data show that between 2007 and 2015, there's a substantial increase in suicide rates for both young males and young females," said Tom Simon, an author of the report and associate director for science in the division of violence protection at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which administers the NCHS.

"We know that overall in the US, we're seeing increases in suicide rates across all age groups," Simon said, putting the new report in perspective.

Experts cite family instability and drug abuse as some factors for suicide, as well as the role of bullying, especially in cyber-space.

Overall suicide rates grew by 24 percent between 1999 and 2014, the CDC said in a report last year.

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US suicide rate rose sharply since 1999

The high suicide rates among older teens in 2015 "could be the result of a lot of things," said Carl Tishler, an adjunct associate professor of psychology and psychiatry at the Ohio State University who was not involved in the report.

Possible risk factors for suicide include an exposure to violence, social isolation, a history of substance abuse, conflict within relationships, shame and a lack of available support.

A vast number of people who die from suicide are those with psychiatric conditions, including depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, said Jeffrey Borenstein, President and CEO of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.

The lack of stability in the United States' economy could also be a factor, Simon said.

"In times of economic prosperity, suicide rates go down," he said. "In times of economic instability, suicide rates go up."

The economic recession of the late 2000s and the increase of drug addiction are some of the other factors leading to more frequent incidents of suicide, said Kristin Holland, a behavioral scientist at the CDC.

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