Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Which Kids Face the Highest Risk of Self-Harm?

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

Growing numbers of American kids and teens are cutting or burning themselves, banging their heads against walls, pulling out their hair and even trying to die by suicide. But figuring out who is at highest risk for harming themselves has been a daunting challenge until now.

Researchers report they have developed risk profiles that can help doctors pinpoint which kids or teens are in the most danger.

"The U.S. is in the midst of a mental health crisis, with mental health diagnoses and hospitalizations surging over the past few years, and many of these hospitalizations are for self-harm events or concern for future self-harm," said study author Dr. James Antoon, an assistant professor of pediatrics and hospital medicine at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

"Self-harm is a big bucket of events from mild things like cutting on the arms or thighs to taking so much Tylenol that you die on purpose or jumping out of a window, and we wanted to find out which kids require hospitalization and more intensive treatment and monitoring," he said.

His team developed four risk profiles for serious self-harm based on age, gender, and psychiatric and medical conditions. Of nearly 1,100 children hospitalized for psychiatric reasons at two children's hospitals from April 2016 to March 2020, 37% were there for self-harm.

The researchers found that boys aged 10 to 13 with ADHD, bipolar disorder, autism spectrum disorder, or another developmental disorder were 80% more likely to engage in serious self-harm behavior that requires hospitalization. Meanwhile, teen girls aged 14 to 17 with depression and anxiety, substance- and trauma-related disorders, and personality and eating disorders were also at high risk for serious self-harm, the study showed.

Suicide attempts comprised the majority of serious self-harm behaviors in the study.

In a counterintuitive finding, kids who were at moderate risk for serious self-harm didn't necessarily have depression, Antoon said. "It is assumed that if you are suicidal, you must be depressed, but there are other things that can drive self-harm and suicide, including anxiety disorders," he noted.

The study was published online in the journal Pediatrics.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/self-harm-2659908631.html

Suicide Rates Among US Adolescents Doubled in 10 Years

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

Suicides among the youngest U.S. teenagers were rising for years before the pandemic—with school stress, social media, and guns standing as potential factors, according to a new study. Researchers found that between 2008 and 2018, the suicide rate among 13- and 14-year-olds nationwide more than doubled—from roughly two deaths per 100,000 teens in 2008 to five per 100,000 a decade later.

It was a stark reversal of a decline that began in the late-1990s.

And if fact, suicide is now the leading cause of death for 13- and 14-year-olds in the United States, said senior researcher Dr. Sarah Wood, a professor of pediatrics at Florida Atlantic University's Schmidt College of Medicine.

The study published online recently in the Annals of Pediatrics and Child Health comes amid growing concerns about U.S. kids' mental well-being.

"In my mind, this study is another warning bell," Wood said. "Things are not improving. They're getting worse."

The study found certain other patterns, too. One was related to geography, with suicide rates being higher in rural areas than in big cities, specifically when it came to firearm deaths: There are 2.3 such deaths per 100,000 in rural areas versus 1.6 per 100,000 in large cities.

The researchers also found that young teens' suicide rates spiked during the school year and dropped off in the summer, suggesting that school stress may be a factor.

Although studies paint a grim picture, Wood also pointed out that teen suicide remains relatively rare. She sees findings like these as a way to raise awareness and "mobilize us."

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05-suicide-adolescents-years.html

COVID-19 Pandemic Saw Major Increase in Children and Adolescents Attempting Suicide by Poison

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

The rate of suspected suicide attempts by poisoning among children and adolescents ages 10-19 reported to U.S. poison centers increased 30% during 2021—the COVID-19 pandemic's first full year—compared with 2019, a new University of Virginia Health study has found.

The researchers published their findings in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The rate of suspected suicide attempts by poisoning among children ages 10-12 increased 73% during 2021 compared with 2019. Among adolescents ages 13-15, the rate of suspected suicide attempts by poisoning in 2021 increased 48.8% over 2019. The rate of suspected suicide attempts by poisoning among females ages 10-19 increased 36.8% in 2021 over 2019.

The findings are based on a review of cases reported to the National Poison Data System by U.S. poison centers as "intentional suspected suicide," which encompasses both suspected suicide attempts and intentional self-harm. Girls accounted for 81.2% of the suspected suicide attempts among adolescents ages 10-19 in 2021, compared with 77% in 2019. These increases in suspected suicides occurred while overall calls to the nation's poison centers decreased 3.1% from 2019 to 2021.

"This significant increase in suicide attempts during the pandemic surprised us," said Christopher Holstege, MD, medical director of the Blue Ridge Poison Center at UVA Health and chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. "We are alarmed at the dramatic increase in suicide attempts in such a young population, which continues to escalate according to our data."

The two most common substances involved in the reported suicide attempts were acetaminophen and ibuprofen, two commonly available, over-the-counter pain relievers.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04-covid-pandemic-major-children-adolescents.html

Excessive Screen Time Linked to Suicidal Behaviors in US Preteens

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

Amidst the worsening teen mental health crisis and new legislation proposing to ban children under 16 from using social media, a new study finds that greater screen time among children 9-11 is associated with a higher risk of developing suicidal behaviors two years later.

The study, published in Preventive Medicine, finds that each additional hour of screen time is associated with a 9% higher risk of reporting suicidal behavior two years later. In particular, each extra hour spent watching videos, playing video games, texting, and video chatting led to a higher risk of suicidal behavior.

"Screen usage could lead to social isolation, cyberbullying, and sleep disruption, which could worsen mental health," said senior author Jason Nagata, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. "More time on screens often displaces time for in-person socializing, physical activity, and sleep."

"Screen time can have important benefits such as education and socialization, but parents should try to mitigate adverse mental health risks from excessive screen time. Parents should regularly talk to their children about screen usage and role model screen behaviors," said Nagata.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-excessive-screen-linked-suicidal-behaviors.html

Big Rise in U.S. Teen Girls Reporting Violence, Sadness

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

An alarming new survey shows that American teen girls are experiencing record-high levels of violence, sadness, and suicide risk.

Schools may be the answer to improving what's happening for young people, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 3 in 5 girls -- 57% -- said they felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021. That's up 60%, the CDC reported, and those numbers are double the number of teen boys experiencing sadness or hopelessness.

Girls fared worse than boys across nearly all measures, though all teens reported increasing mental health challenges, experiences of violence, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), 30% of teen girls seriously considered attempting suicide. About 18% experienced sexual violence in the past year, up 20% from 2017, when the CDC started monitoring this measure.

About 14% had ever been forced to have sex, up 27% since 2019.

Meanwhile, about 52% of LGBTQ students had recently experienced poor mental health and 22% had attempted suicide in the past year.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/depression-in-teen-girls-2659407498.html

Youth Engaged in Digital Self-Harm 9 to 15 Times More Likely to Attempt Suicide

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by EurekAlert!

Digital self-harm is defined as the online posting, sending, or sharing of hurtful content about oneself anonymously. Since research is clear that traditional forms of self-harm (cutting, burning, hitting oneself) are linked to suicidal ideation and attempts, it stands to reason that youth who post cruel, embarrassing, or threatening content about themselves (while their peers assume a third-party is the culprit) do so for similar dysphoric or abnormal reasons.

A new study by Florida Atlantic University, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Florida International University, is the first to empirically demonstrate an association between digital self-harm and suicidality. Findings serve as a warning sign that youth who engage in digital self-harm may also be engaging in or at risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

In the United States, suicide is the second leading cause of death among 10 to 19-year-olds, eclipsed only by unintentional deaths such as from an auto accident.

Results of the study, published in the journal Child and Adolescent Mental Health, showed that approximately 9 percent of adolescents reported that they had anonymously posted something online about themselves that was mean, while about 5 percent said they had anonymously cyberbullied themselves. With regard to suicidality, about 8 percent of adolescents reported that they had thought seriously about attempting suicide in the past year, while 5.3 percent said they had attempted suicide during that time period.

Most pertinent is the finding that those engaged in digital self-harm were between five and seven times more likely to have considered suicide and between nine and 15 times more likely to have attempted to end their life.

Source: EurekAlert!
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/963212

Adolescent Females Found Especially Vulnerable to Mental Health Impact of Pandemic-Related School Closings

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalExpress.

Data from 44 hospitals in 26 states show that suicide or self-injury and depressive disorders were the primary mental health reasons children received emergency department (ED) or hospital inpatient care after statewide school closures were enacted during the first part of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A study published in the May 25 issue of the journal Psychiatric Services validates findings from earlier public health surveillance data suggesting a disproportionate rise in ED visits for suicide—especially among adolescents and females—but goes further to examine percent changes in ED and hospital discharges by type of psychiatric disorder, said Dr. Bonnie Zima, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neurosciences and Human Behavior, the article's lead author.

In this large retrospective study, researchers examined the percent changes in ED discharges and hospital stays between 2019 and 2020, matching 36-week time intervals corresponding to spring through fall of both years and capturing data for children ages 3 to 17.

"Our study found that the declines in ED and hospital discharges for primary psychiatric diagnoses after statewide school closure orders were two to three times less than those for general medical conditions. Suicide or self-injury and depressive disorders continued to account for more than 50% of all acute mental health care encounters before and after the statewide school closures," Zima said. "Hospitalizations for suicide, psychosis, and eating disorders substantially increased after statewide COVID-19 school closure orders. By fall 2020, hospitalizations for suicide or self-injury rose by 41.7%, with a 43.8% and 49.2% rise among teens and girls."

"Our findings identify drivers of the disproportionate rise in acute mental health care encounters that occurred during the time intervals corresponding to the abrupt shift to remote learning, followed by summer vacation and the start of a new school year," said Zima, professor-in-residence, UCLA Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-adolescent-females-vulnerable-mental-health.html

COVID-19 Took Devestating Toll on Adolescent Mental Health and Suicidality

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

The past decade has seen a worrisome increase in mental health crises among adolescents. A new study led by Patricia Ibeziako, MD, associate chief of clinical services in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Services at Boston Children's Hospital, shows that the situation worsened with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings appear in Hospital Pediatrics, a publication of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Ibeziako and colleagues looked back at the Boston Children's own records over a two-year study period—the first pandemic year (March 2020 to February 2021) and the year just prior. During this time, nearly 3,800 children aged 4 to 18 were admitted to the emergency department (ED) or inpatient units for mental-health-related reasons. About 80% were adolescents aged 12 to 18.

In the year before the pandemic, 50% of admitted patients had suicidal ideation or had made suicide attempts. That jumped to 60% during the first pandemic year. The number of patients making actual suicide attempts rose from 236 to 369—going from 12% to 21% of all mental health admissions.

"The majority of suicide attempts were overdoses," says Ibeziako. "We were seeing patients without known mental health issues presenting for the first time with suicide attempts, as well as patients with pre-existing mental health diagnoses."

Aside from suicidality, mental health admissions at Boston Children's increased year over year for depressive disorders (from 63 to 70% of admissions), anxiety disorders (from 46 to 51%), eating disorders (from 7 to 14%), substance-related disorders (7 to 9%), and obsessive-compulsive related disorders (4 to 6%). Admissions rose especially for girls, whose share increased from 56 to 66%.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-covid-devastating-toll-adolescent-mental.html

Teen Suicides Increased During the Pandemic

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by CNN.

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.

Data from Georgia, Indiana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Virginia and California also showed an increase in the proportion of adolescent deaths by suicide relative to suicides by people of all ages, the authors found. Conversely, Montana had a decrease in adolescent suicides and the proportion of adolescent deaths by suicide during the pandemic, while Alaska had a decrease in proportion only, the research found.

Researchers partnered with public health departments in 14 states and looked into death certificate data on more than 85,000 people who died by suicide. The authors compared two time periods: 2015 to 2019 and 2020, which is the pandemic year they analyzed.

When data were aggregated across all 14 states, the proportion of overall suicides among adolescents increased during the pandemic.

The findings highlight the need to pay attention to any behaviors adolescents show that can signal suicidal thoughts, said Marie-Laure Charpignon, the first author of the study and a doctoral student in statistics at the Institute for Data, Systems and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "We're all kind of blind within our own families or households," she added. Sometimes "we see what we want to see, or what we have the opportunity to see in the limited amount of time we have."

Source: CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/25/health/teen-suicide-increase-pandemic-study-wellness/index.html

Teen Internet Usage Associated with Stress and Suicidal Ideation

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

A survey of nearly 30,000 high school students in Korea reveals an association between non-academic time spent on the Internet and mental health, with teenagers who spent more time online having higher levels of stress and more feelings of sadness and suicidal ideation. The new study was published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Yeunhee Kwak of Chung-Ang University, Korea, and colleagues.

Internet usage in adolescence has been shown to be associated with emotional and physical problems but there is a need to investigate the exact factors that play a role in this association. Past studies have not always distinguished between types of Internet usage, which has made interpretation of their findings difficult.

In the new study, the researchers analyzed data from 29,811 high school students ages 16 to 18 who completed the 2018 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey. Information on non-academic Internet usage, mental health, and general characteristics of the students was also available.

On average, students in the study spent more than 3 hours a day on the Internet for non-academic purposes. Internet usage was highest among students in lower grade levels, female students, students of low economic status, and low academic achievement students, among other groups.

Students with lower internet usage appeared better off on a range of measures: even after controlling for all available demographic characteristics, they reported better health, reduced stress, fewer feelings of sadness, and less suicidal ideation than the group with high Internet usage.

While the findings cannot demonstrate any causative link between Internet usage and mental health, the authors believe that active support and interventions are needed to reduce feelings of stress and sadness in adolescents and that programs that promote healthy use of the Internet, replace Internet use with social and physical activities, and help adolescents maintain good relationships could play a role.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-03-teen-internet-usage-stress-suicidal.html