Publications - Suicide

Myths about abortion and women's mental health are widespread, experts say, by Sandee LaMotte, CNN, Jul 2 2022.

“"There's so much misinformation, so many myths about abortion. Abortion will lead to substance abuse, depression, suicidal thoughts; abortion is bad for your health; every woman is going to regret it," said social psychologist Brenda Major, a distinguished professor emeritus in the department of psychological and brain sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  In reality, decades of research has shown "the vast majority of women feel they made the right choice, and they don't experience regret," said Major, who led a 2008 American Psychological Association task force exploring the science on abortion and mental health. ”

AAP now recommends screening all kids 12 and up for depression and suicide risk, by Sarah Pool, MA, LPC, NCC, Motherly, Jun 13 2022.

“Depression and suicide risk in children has reached unprecedented levels. Last year, amid the pandemic, youth mental health was declared a "national emergency" by a coalition representing over 77,000 physicians and over 200 children's hospitals. Additionally, the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy issued a 53-page advisory warning in 2021 of a growing mental health crisis among young people.   The CDC also released a 2022 report revealing a worsening mental health climate—asserting that 21% of teens experienced a major depressive episode before the pandemic, and 9% of children and adolescents experienced anxiety problems. The pandemic has only exacerbated these issues.  In response to this growing crisis, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently issued a draft recommendation urging that pediatricians help screen for mental health issues such as major depressive disorder and anxiety. They are also now proposing that all adolescents are screened for suicide risk. ”

More states are allowing students to take mental health days off, by Giles Bruce, NPR, Jun 10 2022.

“The state allows K-12 students in public schools to have five excused absences per school year for mental health reasons, another example of the growing acknowledgment among lawmakers that emotional and physical health are intertwined. The new policy, which went into effect at the beginning of 2022, passed both chambers of the state legislature unanimously. But such novel policies are, in many ways, a half-step toward addressing the crisis of teenage mental health that has been highlighted and exacerbated by the educational interruptions caused by the pandemic. Many parts of the country are woefully short of therapists who can work with students to address mental health problems.  Seventy percent of schools that responded to a federal survey in April said more students had sought mental health services since the pandemic started. The National Center for Education Statistics' polling also showed that only 56% of schools said they effectively provide mental health services to all students in need and just 41% reported hiring new staff members to help address students' mental health needs. Nearly half the nation lives in a designated mental health worker shortage area, according to government data, and an estimated 7,550 new professionals are needed to fill that void nationwide. Even in places where mental health professionals are more plentiful, they often do not accept public insurance, making them inaccessible to many kids. ”

Transgender youth at a higher risk for suicidal thoughts, report says, by Chiara Greco, The Globe and Mail, Jun 6 2022.

“Transgender adolescents are nearly five times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than their non-transgender and heterosexual peers, according to a new study.  The research, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, used data from Statistics Canada’s 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth to assess the risk of suicide among transgender and sexual-minority youth in Canada. The data included responses from more than 6,800 adolescents aged 15 to 17. Of those respondents, 1,130 indicated some degree of same-gender attraction, 265 were unsure of their attraction and 50 reported transgender identities. The study found that nearly 50 per cent of transgender respondents said they had seriously thought about suicide in the past 12 months, compared to 10.4 per cent of cisgender heterosexual respondents. (Someone is cisgender when their gender identity corresponds with whatever sex they were assigned at birth.) Nearly 6.8 per cent of adolescents included in the study had attempted suicide in their lifetime. ”

Suicides among Black People May Be Vastly Undercounted, by Mike Letterman, True Viral News, Jun 6 2022.

“Ian Rockett has been researching the epidemiology of suicide for many years. One of the questions the West Virginia University investigator has pondered over many years in the field is why the rate of suicide among black people in the U.S. is recorded as a third of that of white people. The extent to which medical examiners and coroners have lacked sufficient data to accurately determine causes of death has been shown by Rockett. Black American deaths are 2.3 times more likely than white American deaths to be classified as "unexplained" at the time they occur.  In a study published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, researchers found that Black suicides were more likely to be classified as undetermined because coroners and medical examiners have less information to go on. They are more likely to be labeled as undetermined intent when there is less psychological documentation. This leads to suicides. This conclusion is confirmed by the language that appears in death reports. A study published in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior found that the incidence of mental health information in white suicides was higher than in other races. White narratives were more likely to have words such as depression and anxiety in them. Phrases such as "nothing" and "questionable" were common in black narratives. The study found that accounts for Black people contained less words and less lexical diversity. ”

A Rise in Suicides by Young Children Leaves Families Searching for Answers, by Andrea Petersen, The Wall Street Journal, Jun 5 2022.

“The number of children dying by suicide has risen dramatically in recent years. Parents often don’t know that their children are having suicidal thoughts, new research shows. Among females ages 10 to 14, the rate of suicide more than tripled between 2007 and 2020, from 0.5 per 100,000 to 2 per 100,000 according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Among males the same age, the rate jumped from 1.2 per 100,000 to 3.6 per 100,000 over the same period.  Although the numbers are tiny compared with the number of older adolescents and adults who die by suicide, it is now the second leading cause of death among children in this age group. Suicidal thoughts and attempts are much more common in younger children than previously thought, new research is finding. Among 9- and 10-year-olds and their parents who were asked if the children had suicidal thoughts or made suicide attempts during their lifetime, 14.3% reported suicidal thoughts and 1.26% reported suicide attempts, according to an analysis of data from a large study of adolescent health and brain development that is following nearly 12,000 youngsters across the U.S. The paper was published in 2021 in the journal Translational Psychiatry. New research is uncovering risk factors in younger children like family conflict and early exposure to alcohol. Depression is most commonly associated with suicidal thoughts in older teens and adults, but in younger children scientists are finding that ADHD and behavior problems are also closely linked to suicidal thoughts and behaviors. ”

Adolescent suicides increased in 5 US states during the pandemic. Why parents should be concerned, by Kristen Rogers, CNN, Apr 25 2022.

“The mental health of Americans has suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic, and new research shows the damage wasn't limited to adults.  The number of suicides among adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 increased in five states during the pandemic, according to research looking at 14 states published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics on Monday. "Suicide-risk screenings have yielded higher positive rates" during the pandemic than beforehand, the authors said. And in 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics declared a state of emergency concerning children's and adolescents' mental health. ”

‘A cry for help’: CDC warns of a steep decline in teen mental health, by Moriah Balingit, The Washington Post, Mar 31 2022.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning of an accelerating mental health crisis among adolescents, with more than 4 in 10 teens reporting that they feel “persistently sad or hopeless,” and 1 in 5 saying they have contemplated suicide, according to the results of a survey published Thursday.  “These data echo a cry for help,” said Debra Houry, a deputy director at the CDC. “The COVID-19 pandemic has created traumatic stressors that have the potential to further erode students’ mental well-being.”  The findings draw on a survey of a nationally representative sample of 7,700 teens conducted in the first six months of 2021, when they were in the midst of their first full pandemic school year. They were questioned on a range of topics, including their mental health, alcohol and drug use, and whether they had encountered violence at home or at school. They were also asked about whether they had encountered racism. ”

The U.S. surgeon general issues a stark warning about the state of youth mental health, by L. Carol Ritchie, NPR, Dec 7 2021.

“U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has a warning about the mental health of young people.  Murthy told Morning Edition that children and young adults were already facing a mental health crisis before the coronavirus pandemic began: One in three high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, a 40% increase from 2009 to 2019, he said. Suicide rates went up during that time by 57% among youth ages 10 to 24. During the pandemic, rates of anxiety and depression have increased, he said.  The pandemic has made the issues behind the mental health crisis only worse, he said. ”

The pandemic worsened young people’s mental health crisis., by Matt Richtel, The New York Times, Dec 7 2021.

“The United States surgeon general on Tuesday warned that young people are facing “devastating” mental health effects as a result of the challenges experienced by their generation, including the coronavirus pandemic.  The report cited significant increases in self-reports of depression, anxiety and emergency-room visits for mental health challenges. In the United States, emergency room visits for suicide attempts rose 51 percent for adolescent girls in early 2021 as compared with the same period in 2019. The figure rose 4 percent for boys.  Globally, symptoms of anxiety and depression doubled during the pandemic, the report noted. But mental health issues were already on the rise in the United States, with emergency room visits related to depression, anxiety and related issues up 28 percent between 2011 and 2015. ”

The pandemic worsened young people’s mental health crisis., by Matt Richtel, The New York Times, Dec 7 2021.

“The United States surgeon general on Tuesday warned that young people are facing “devastating” mental health effects as a result of the challenges experienced by their generation, including the coronavirus pandemic.  The report cited significant increases in self-reports of depression, anxiety and emergency-room visits for mental health challenges. In the United States, emergency room visits for suicide attempts rose 51 percent for adolescent girls in early 2021 as compared with the same period in 2019. The figure rose 4 percent for boys.  Globally, symptoms of anxiety and depression doubled during the pandemic, the report noted. But mental health issues were already on the rise in the United States, with emergency room visits related to depression, anxiety and related issues up 28 percent between 2011 and 2015. ”

Why It’s So Hard to Find a Therapist Who Takes Insurance, by Andrea Petersen, The Wall Street Journal, Oct 5 2021.

“Finding a therapist who takes insurance was tough before the pandemic. Now, therapists and patients say, an increase in the need for mental-health care is making the search even harder. Especially in big cities such as Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., demand for mental-health care is so strong that many experienced therapists don’t accept any insurance plans, they say. They can easily fill their practices with patients who would pay out of pocket, they add. Therapists who do take insurance are often booked up. And in many smaller towns and rural areas, there are few mental-health professionals at all. Finding a provider who takes insurance, or lowering your rates in other ways, is possible but often takes legwork that can be draining when you are already grappling with mental-health issues. About 34% of people with private insurance said they had difficulty finding a therapist who would accept their coverage, according to a 2016 survey—the most recent data available—of more than 3,100 participants conducted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a national mental-health advocacy group. By comparison, 9% said they had difficulty finding an in-network primary-care provider.  Office visits to mental-health providers are more than five times more likely to be out of network than are visits to primary-care providers, according to a 2019 report from Milliman, a consulting firm, which analyzed insurance-claims data. In 2017, 17.2% of mental-health office visits were out of network, compared with 3.2% of primary-care visits, the Milliman report found. ”

Suicide rate among active duty service members increased by 41% between 2015 and 2020, by Alex Marquardt and Ellie Kaufman, CNN, Sep 30 2021.

“The suicide rate among active duty service members in the US military increased by 41.4% in the five years from 2015 to 2020, according to data provided in the annual report from the Department of Defense on suicide in the military.  The suicide rate among active duty service members increased by 9.1% in 2020, according to data from the report, which was released Thursday. From 2018 to 2020, it rose 15.3%.  The suicide rate among reserve members of the US military went up by 19.2% in 2020, but the rate has overall gone down since 2018, the report shows. The suicide rate among National Guard members increased by 31.7% in 2020, but has also gone down overall since 2018.  Some 580 members of the military, among active duty, reserves and National Guard, died by suicide in 2020. The report also shows 202 military family members died by suicide in 2019. ”

How to Detect Your Child’s Emotional Distress Before the School’s AI Does, by Julie Jargon, The Wall Street Journal, Sep 18 2021.

“School districts use artificial-intelligence software that can scan student communications and web searches on school-issued devices—and even devices that are logged in via school networks—for signs of suicidal ideation, violence against fellow students, bullying and more. Included in the scans are emails and chats between friends, as well as student musings composed in Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Many school districts have used monitoring software over the past three years to prevent school shootings, but it has evolved to become a tool to spot a range of mental-health issues, including anxiety, depression and eating disorders. School administrators say such surveillance is more important than ever as students return to the classroom after 18 months of pandemic-related stress, uncertainty and loss. Critics say it raises questions about privacy, misuse and students’ ability to express feelings freely or search for answers. ”

How A Hospital And A School District Teamed Up To Help Kids In Emotional Crisis, by Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR, Jun 11 2021.

“The concerning rise in mental health issues noticed by school administrators mirrors national trends. Roughly 1 in 5 U.S. children meet criteria for a mental health disorder, and the rate of suicide attempts among youth has risen over the past decade, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Around the country, most kids who have mental health issues don't get treatment. There's a shortage of providers who work with children and it can take months to get an appointment.  "The wait times on an average to see a mental health specialist on an emergency basis is somewhere between two to three months, and for regular basis is up to 12 months, which is an unacceptable wait time," says Dr. Ujjwal Ramtekkar, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Nationwide Children's Hospital. ”