News Release

Estimates of emergency department visits for suicide attempts, thoughts among kids, teens

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA Network

Bottom Line: Many children with suicide attempts/suicidal thoughts present to emergency departments (EDs). An analysis of U.S. ED data from 2007 to 2015 estimates annual visits almost doubled from 580,000 to 1.12 million for suicide attempts/suicidal thoughts by children ages 5 to 18 years. As a proportion of all pediatric encounters in EDs, suicide attempts/suicidal thoughts increased from 2.17 percent in 2007 to 3.50 percent in 2015. Limitations of the study are that a cause cannot be inferred from the results and it's possible that nonsuicidal self-harm was incorrectly coded by physicians as suicide attempts/suicidal thoughts. Study findings suggest a need to strengthen community mental health resources, increase ED physician preparedness for dealing with these cases, and develop initiatives to decrease suicide risk among children and teens.

Author: Brett Burstein, M.D.C.M., Ph.D., M.P.H., Montreal Children's Hospital, Montreal, Canada, and coauthors

(doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.0464)

Editor's Note:  Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

###

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article: This link will be live at the embargo time https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2730063?guestAccessKey=eb570f5d-0295-4a92-9f83-6f647c555b51&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=04089


Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.