Excerpt from: The New York Times (click for full article)
The study, in the journal JAMA Psychiatry,
found that 55 percent of suicidal teenagers had received some therapy
before they thought about suicide, planned it or tried to kill
themselves, contradicting the widely held belief that suicide is due in
part to a lack of access to treatment.
The findings, based on interviews with a nationwide sample of more than 6,000 teenagers and at least one parent of each, linked suicidal behavior to complex combinations of mood disorders like depression and behavior problems like attention-deficit and eating disorders, as well as alcohol and drug abuse.
The study found that about one in eight teenagers had persistent
suicidal thoughts at some point, and that about a third of those who had
suicidal thoughts had made an attempt, usually within a year of having
the idea.
The study suggests that effective treatment for severely suicidal
teenagers must address not just mood disorders, but also behavior
problems that can lead to impulsive acts, experts said. According to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,386 people between the
ages of 13 and 18 committed suicide in 2010, the latest year for which
numbers are available.
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