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Increase in US youth suicide rates 2004

¹ Department of Community Medicine, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA
² Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester, New York, NY, USA

Dr R M Bossarte, Department of Community Medicine, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA; rbossarte@hsc.wvu.edu

Accepted 3 December 2007

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In the 9 September 2007 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Lubell et al from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported an 8% increase in suicide among US youth and young adults from 2003 to 2004—from 6.78. (n = 4232) to 7.32 (n = 4599) per 100 000.¹ The first such change in a decade, it reflected increases in females aged 10–14 and 15–19 years, and males aged 15–19 years. The authors noted an increase in suicides by hanging/suffocation and listed several likely risk factors, including family discord, legal/disciplinary problems, school concerns, and mental health conditions such as depression.^{1 2}

Controversy regarding potential contributing factors followed soon after. Demonstrating an ecological association between the increased rate and a declining rate of prescriptions for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants, Gibbons et al³ suggested that the latter was a chilling effect of the 2004 black box warning . . . [Full text of this article]