Suicides among American teenagers and young adults have reached their highest rate in two decades, a new report reveals.
The number of people dying by suicide in the US has been steadily rising for more than a decade, but health officials are particularly distressed by the suffering mental health of teenagers.
Increases in anxiety, depression and social media use are hitting 15- to 24-year-olds particularly hard, the authors of the new Harvard Medical School study suggest.
In 2017, a total of 6,241 people in that age range took their own lives, prompting health officials to call for more study of the possible causes of these increases, as well as research on what may have driven the decrease in suicides seen in the 1990s.
The sharpest rise in suicides occurred among 15- to 19-year-olds, with a 10 percent increase in these deaths among teenage boys and girls between 2014 and 2017 (light blue)
During the tumultuous teenage and young adult years, it's not uncommon for people to contemplate suicide.
Each year, as many as one in five teens seriously think about taking their own lives, according to Yellow Ribbon, US-based a suicide prevention program.
Other experts and organizations have referred to youth and teen suicide as the 'silent epidemic.'
Young people often confide in social media and friends, so the signs of their growing distress may go unnoticed by parents, teachers, health care professionals and other adults.
Historically, young men and boys have been more likely to complete suicide, whereas suicide attempts have been more common among girls and young women.
But earlier this year, a report found that this gap is closing.
And the latest research bolsters that theory, finding increases among both sexes, but particularly alarming rises among girls and women.
In 2017, 5.4 out of every 100,000
