Teenage suicide in the United States

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people in the United States from the ages of 9 to 56.^[1]

In the United States, for the year 2005, the suicide rate for both males and females age 25 and below was lower than the rate for ages 26 and up.^[2] The death rate from suicide for teenagers peaked in 1980 for females and 1994 for males.^[3]

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, suicide is considered 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 ^[4] 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 mental health crisis among our youth.^[5] Emergency room visits for mental health issues have dramatically increased, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.^[6]

In 2015, the CDC also stated that an estimated 9.3 million adults, which is roughly 4% of the United States population, had suicidal thoughts in one year alone. 1.3 million adults 18 and older attempted suicide in one year, with 1.1 million making plans to die by suicide. Looking at younger youths, suicide is the third leading cause of death of individuals aged from 10 to 14. Males and females are known to have different suicidal tendencies. For example, males take their lives almost four times the rate females do. Males also account for approximately 77.9% of all suicides, however, the female population is more likely to have thoughts of suicide than males. Males more commonly use a firearm to die by suicide, while females commonly use a form of poison. College students aged 18–22 are less likely to attempt suicide than teenagers.^[7] The most common suicide method among females aged 15 to 25 is suffocation according to Suicide Prevention Resource Center.^[8]

A recent study by the CDC with the help of Johns Hopkins University, Harvard, and Boston Children's Hospital has revealed that suicide rates dropping in certain states has been linked to the legalization of same sex marriage in those same states. Suicide rates as a whole fell about 7% but the rates among specifically gay, lesbian, and bisexual teenagers fell at a rate of 14%. In 2013, an estimated 494,169 people were treated in emergency departments for self-inflicted, nonfatal injuries, which left an estimated $10.4 billion in combined medical and work loss costs.^[9]

Suicide differs through the race and ethnic backgrounds. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention ranked suicide as the 8th leading cause for American Indians/Alaska Natives. Hispanic students in grades 9–12 have the following percentages: having seriously considered attempting suicide (18.9%), having made a plan about how they would attempt suicide (15.7%), having attempted suicide (11.3%), and having made a suicide attempt that resulted in an injury, poisoning, or overdose that required medical attention (4.1%). These percentages are consistently worse than those of white and black students.^[10]

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] Parents witnessing such threats are recommended to immediately speak with their child and seek immediate mental health evaluation.