Talk:Teenage suicide in the United States

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 7 April 2020 and 27 June 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Forresthearst.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:48, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

"Indigenous" was spelled wrong, so I fixed it.

As of now it's rather small and there are too many opinionated statements.LunarMoon 02:18, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Agree, and if the if the if the I've marked it as utterly unsourced. I also dispute the following statement: "Parents, family, and friends should take suicide seriously for gay teens, despite most conservative religious groups' assertion that the high suicide risk for gay teens is a myth." I have seen more than one homophobic conservative religious website using the (alleged) high suicide rate among gays (in general, not gay teens) as an argument that homosexuality is harmful. I don't know whether or not this is typical among conservative religous homophobes, though, so I'll leave the statement in. N (t/c) 00:20, 21 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Excuse me. What the hell is this? There are no sources. Half of the stuff is blatant lies and the other half is simply a grotesque mass of bleeding flesh. It makes no sense. I hate this article with every fiber of my being. The rage I feel right now towards this article is immeasurable. The disgust, distate, and pure, undiluted hatred that courses through my veins could melt the White House in one shot. Sorry, but this article SUCKS! [John Everest]

i agree cos i am a teenager now but also i think parents shud take suicides more seriously for teenagers not only gays because i have tried lots of times but have failed al times my mum even notice me once but just ignored me but i think if i die it is going to be diffently by suicide...

Who in hell's name wrote this article? What am I going to put on my bibliography? (Bilbo Baggins)

I must say that my sympathies lie squarely with the teenagers who commit suicide, having been close to doing so myself. If you're a teenager contemplating suicide, TELL SOMEONE NOW. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO FEEL THIS WAY. As for the verification of the article, here's a first step: [|American Psychiatric Association: Practice Guideline for the Assessment and Treatment of Patients with Suicidal Behaviors]. I wish that the APA would publish the DSM-IV in an online format for better access to the layperson, but there's enough disparate info online.treebeard 06:31, 14 Nov 2005 (UTC)

High Risk Groups for suicide
Black teenagers have a *very* high suicide rate, shouldn't they be put on the list?

Warning Signs: "No sense of humour" Is that really relevant?

Except for the first two paragraphs ("Psychologists have identified the teenage years as one of the most difficult phases of human life..."), there is little here which wouldn't be relevant to suicide (or contemplation of suicide) regardless of age.

Unless the article underwent major changes, I would consider it redundant, given other suicide-related articles on Wikipedia. (Of course, if there are in fact aspects of depression or suicide specific to adolescents, those could be added to other articles.)

Do teenagers attempt or sucessfully commit suicide more often than more than any adults? I'm not sure, but I think it's more common in the 30-50 age range.

What about pre-teen suicide? Yes, it does happen. (I will admit to a certain amount of personal bias here. I began showing signs of clinical depression--including thoughts of suicide--at age eleven.  Thankfully, I survived until the time I sought treatment, which was about 18 years later.)

I wonder whether part of the reason this article exists is that there is at least the impression that minors are not as free as adults to make their own choices, and that therefore intervention might be more successful than if the suicidal person were an adult.

An adult patient in therapy who admits having suicidal thoughts may, depending on a variety of factors--visible distress, past history, the degree to which they speak of specific intent and plans, the attitude of the therapist--in many cases find themselves involuntarily institutionalized in hopes of preventing them from committing suicide. When this happens, the adult--in a matter of speaking--now has the status of a child, unable to make decisions about their own life.

The discussion regarding higher potential of suicide among teens who are gay or unsure of their sexual orientation: I do believe this is an important issue. However, it should be emphasized that suicidal thoughts or actions in these cases are not "caused" by homosexuality, but by bigoted attitudes against homosexuality.

Again, age is not always the issue. Not every gay person "comes out" as a teenager, and not every gay person who commits suicide is a teen. (For that matter, lesbians and gay men may commit suicide for reasons not related to their sexual orientation.) Adolescence is, I'll admit, perhaps a uniquely difficult time for these kids, because the pressure to conform to heterosexual norms is most intense at the ages when teens are starting to go on dates.

I am very concerned about the ethical issues surrounding involuntary institutionalization and shock treatment (excuse me, "electro-convulsive therapy" is the euphemism most often used today). Anyone sufficiently determined to end their life will eventually find a way. But that's another article. drone5 23:11, 11 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Well said, Drone5. This article is in major need of work and clean-up. I'm going to try and expand some of the information here and provide some references. There are some shocking claims here... no sense of humour causes suicide!? homosexuality? Althought I admit I have not researched this, it doesn't sound sensible. SSRIs are a direct cause of suicide? I thought they were anti-depressant and were supposed to help you. This is ridiculous. I could use help from anyone interested. Gflores Talk 06:53, 13 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Gflores, just give it up. This article is beyond repair. This entire site is beyond repair. The best thing you can do now is blank all of the articles and ban the IPs of everyone who has ever contributed here. Start from scratch and leave out the shit. --preceding unsigned comment by User:Malvolio Everest

Lets do that Malvolio. We will start by banning you. --Arm 18:09, 23 December 2005 (UTC)


 * I doesn't say that "no sense of humor" and "homosexuality" are causes of suicide, Gflores. It says that "no sense of humor" is a warning sign of suicide, and that it's society's views on homosexuality that cause suicides, not homosexuality itself. -Travis 04:18, 25 December 2005 (UTC)


 * No one can say authoritatively whether homosexuality causes suicide or whether society's views and their treatment of GLBT people causes suicide. All the studies can say is that increased suicide occurs among homosexuals. So now what do we do with that information? We can make further hypotheses about the role of society and test them by designing social interventions that have an effect on societal attitudes and behaviors and see if that reduces the actual occurrences of suicides among GLBTs. But I don't know how we're going to change people's attitudes on this issue. The other alternative is to somehow find an effective "cure" for homosexuality and see if that reduces suicides. (I suspect such "cures" might have tho opposite effect though.) Dcs002 (talk) 04:12, 6 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Four out of five teenagers who successfully commit suicide are male, but the average female teenager is four times more prone to attempt suicide during her teen years than the average male.
 * As in adult cases, teenagers who have unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide in the past are more likely to attempt suicide in the future. The odds increase after each failed attempt.
 * While females are more apt to attempt suicide, males are more apt to complete it.

are not the first and third points saying exactly the same thing, though the first one is more exact? therefore, is there any point in the third point?

causes/warning signs
Shouldn't these sections be moved to Suicide since they apply to people of all ages. More specific signs can be discussed in the teenage suicide article. However, I feel the causes/warning signs listed should be heavily reviewed and at least referenced. Gflores Talk 18:29, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Not only is this list likely not specific to teenagers, or teenagers in the US, but not a single item in this list currently has a citation. Neededandwanted (talk) 07:25, 20 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Are there specific signs related to teenage suicide? I've always found the signs are the same in teenage suicide as in just suicide. TearAwayTheFunerealDress


 * Was thinking the same thing. I think a separate article is needed, considering there is information to biological and psychological causes. Gflores Talk 16:44, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I guess I mean teenage specific things, such as puberty, hormones, acceptance in school, etc. Gflores Talk 20:36, 5 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Resource articles on gay teenager suicide

High Suicide Rate Among Gay Teenagers And What the Bible Actually Says About Homosexuality - 2005 http://www.dldewey.com/bible05.htm

Teenagers Are Committing Suicide Because They Are Gay http://www.dldewey.com/suicide.htm

Evangelical Advise
Not to long ago I found myself in a crisis of self. After looking on the internet for advise, I became more depressed. Most of the advise I found was written by evangelical christians. In my opinion it was bad advise. Rather than pointing me towards helpful information, rather than sharing experiences, rather than giving constructive advise, the articles told me I was evil and that I could change. I am gay, not evil. Because search engines rank query result sites by numbers of links, a systematic approach to web content preparation and publishing can result in standardizing of opinion and advise. I believe that moralizing an issue that has not been proven to be a moral issue is just wrong. In fact, there is substantial evidence that sexual orientation is not a choice. I wonder how many teenagers commit suicide after reading bad internet advise? This generation has been taught to go to google, for example, to get answers. Internet search engines have a responsibility to make sure that teenagers get the best life advise possible. A child who does not have access to a therapist but who does have access to the internet is at great risk. I would never send my child to an evangelical christian for advise; yet on his or her own, a child is likely to query the internet and get bad advise. I consider the uncritical offering of therapy by query a kind of child abuse. What would be worse, to have your child molested by a pervert, or lose your child to suicide due to bad advise? Obviously suicide.

It seems to me that some warning should go into this article. Some kind of disclaimer should be made to warn children of the dangers of bad, simplistic, moralistic "advise." When a child seeks help, a cold, impersonal, uncritical sermon could be the tipping point. Moreover, search engines should offer the same kind of disclaimer on their portals. Google is not a substitute for parental or professional advise. I am an adult. I am more prepared to parse out good and bad advise. A child is not.

Is anyone aware of any meaningful, scientific studies that look at internet browser history and teen suicides?


 * Not internet browser history, but one study (JAMA. 2004 Aug 4;292(5):594-601.) reports a slightly increased risk of teen suicide associated with Southern Baptist (4% increase) and Mormon (12% increase) religious affiliations, and a very slightly (though significantly) reduced rate among Catholics (2% decrease, teens and young adults). This was not the primary intent of this study, and they only reported on four religious affiliations, all Christian (the other was "other Protestant," no effect), so it's not complete, but I think there's probably something there. I also think it's interesting that the authors chose not to discuss this finding at all in their paper. That's really unusual in research -- to report statistical significance and not discuss it. Dcs002 (talk) 09:16, 5 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Just found another study (Am J Epidemiol. 2002 Mar 1;155(5):413-9.) that attributes a much higher rate of suicide among Mormon youth to those with a low level of commitment to the faith. They were more than three times as likely to commit suicide than highly committed Mormon youth. If the previous study was correct, then highly committed Mormon youths have a MUCH LOWER risk of suicide than the national average. Interesting... Dcs002 (talk) 09:29, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Rewrite
I'm thinking of possibly rewriting this. However, I'm currently unsure of how the format and structure should be. Any ideas? Gflores Talk 20:45, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I have begun the rewrite. It's not done, it still needs more information and it needs to be wikified and could use a reference section (I don't know how to make them), instead of having external links everywhere.


 * I removed the Direct causes and indirect causes and replaced them with risk groups and added population differences. Direct causes are most likely for every age and should go here... Epidemiology and Methodology of Suicide. The risk groups and warning signs can probably be expanded. However, there should be reputable sources... I don't want the pathetic article that was there before.


 * I removed warning signs since they apply to people of all ages. Warning signs specific to teenagers may still be added.

Gay suicides
Aproximatly how many gay suisides are there a year?--66.41.169.244 14:32, 9 April 2006 (UTC)
 * The LGBTQ+ youth section consists of thinly veiled opinionating. It suggests that there is an increase in suicide due to the passage of discriminatory laws. What is needed is some evidence that LGBTQ+ youth suicide is greater now than in the past, when any fair-minded observer would agree that discrimination was much greater. Nicmart (talk) 05:38, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

10:08, 2 May 2006 edit
Added a huge bunch of text, some useful but all of it very poorly written. Someone go through it. Skinnyweed 22:51, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Statistical significance?
Nothing I read in this article convinced me that suicide among teenagers is so significantly different from suicide among every other age group that it needs its own article. Clinical depression, homophobia and low self-esteem aren't exclusive to people aged 13-19, and the statistics cited early in the article (assuming they are accurate) indicate that teenagers are not the age group with the highest rate of suicide or attempted suicide. This is all aside from the fact that, like nearly every article on the suicide template is inundated with suicide prevention soapbox. - LeaHazel 16:51, 23 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Hi lea. I respectfully don't think there is POV soapboxing going on. I have completely rewritten and sourced 'Countermeasures to Teenage Suicide' and hopefully this is now purely informative, not prescriptive. On the issue of whether TS warrants it's own aritcle, there is now a lot here to merge into the main Suicide article. You may have a point though. Do you suggest merge? --Amists 11:43, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Sloppy writing
"Psychologists can improve a teenager's vision of life by listening to them and making them feel everything will work out for the best."

What?

Am going to change it to something like:

"A course doctors commonly take when presented with a young, suicidal patient will be a combnation of drug based treatment (eg imipramine or fluoxetine) with a 'talking based' therapy, such as referral to a cognitive behaviour therapist."

Actually I have rewritten the whole section "countermeasures to suicide" and referenced it, so I have removed the POV tag, unless someone thinks the section is still POV - -user:amists

'Indigenous youths' vulnerable to suicide.
This is so vague and US-centric. I understand that in the USA the term refers to Native Americans which i accept are vulnerable to suicide. But maybe it should be changed to 'minority Indigenous youths'. Where i'm from, the UK, about 90% of the population is indigenous. In fact other than in the americas and australia indigenous peoples are in the majority and Wikipedia is an international encyclopedia, not an american encyclopedia. So i'm going to edit it.

Ciimbranno 22:36, 1 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes I agree, but this has now been editied out (by you?)to just reference the high suicide rate amongst Native American teenagers. I have removed the Global tag unless you still think there is a problem. Nice work. --Amists 11:38, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Some general editing
I have added more wiki links and done some general editing for clarity without changing overall content. Most changes are pretty minor. Aleta 09:56, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Needs semi-protection to stop vandals?
Looking back through the history, there have been a number of tims this page has been vandalized recently, be people only with IP addresses. Should it perhaps by temporarily limited to those signed into user accounts to stop this? Aleta 02:01, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

this page has been vandalised again. im editing out the "teens who suck cock or suck pussy". this page needs to be semi-protected to stop this

Ages 20-24?
Hi, I just wanted to know why people ages 20-24 are still part of the teenage suicide article. (unsigned)

Or aged 10, 11 and 12 for that matter. The article is poorly named for the data given, but likely shows up well in searches for people that this data might be relevant to. Data on teenage suicide can be INFERRED from the statistics given here to a limited degree. For to age range 10-24 years, less than half of that range is "teenage."Neededandwanted (talk) 06:51, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm wondering where to put this piece of information
I'm wondering where to put this piece of information on Wikipedia.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1029685/Schoolboy-hanged-father-confiscated-new-Wii.html

A teen boy hung himself with his tie because his father took away his wii.

What is odd is normally if you try to hang yourself with a tie, either the tie breaks or it rips. It should not kill you, ever. Hanging also does not kill you unless it breaks your neck. William Ortiz (talk) 18:56, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Hanging can still suffocate you, the wording is a little misleading, since in the case of a true hanging, the purpose is to drop the victim from a high enough height where their neck will break when they have fallen enough where the rope starts to break their fall. However, in the case of this teen boy, he most likely died from strangling himself with the tie, where he probably got the tie to support his weight since he probably just put his neck through it and tightened it while it was tied to his closet rack or something. A necktie could probably support your hanging weight, so long as you don't try to jump and have it break your fall.

67.246.13.226 (talk) 08:01, 26 March 2009 (UTC)


 * It was a suicide. I don't think this is a place to discuss the tensile strength of neckties or whether a true hanging requires a neck-breaking drop. It's still another devastating teen suicide. Dcs002 (talk) 04:21, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

Terrible advice
There are many methods of helping teenagers who are considering suicide. In order to help a suicidal person it is important to show the helper can be trusted and will listen. '''Seeing a doctor is widely recommended as well. A course doctors commonly take when presented with a young, suicidal patient is a combination of drug-based treatment (eg. imipramine or fluoxetine) '''with a 'talking-based' therapy, such as referral to a cognitive behaviour therapist. This kind of therapy concentrates on modifying self-destructive and irrational thought processes

The bolded section is compleatly insane. I myself am listed as a teenager with depression, and if my parents ever get me a doctor it is not going to make me feel better. A doctor trying to force you happy pills is not going to make you feel any better. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.147.141.213 (talk) 04:50, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

The bold section is just a common procedure that is taken by concerned and loving people in dealing with suicidal thoughts or feelings. Also, it isn't really meant to be medical advice at all, its just documenting the most basic method of helping someone who is feeling suicidal. And how are you "listed" as a teenager with depression? You can say you are depressed all you want, but if you want to actually be diagnosed with clinical depression, then you have to be diagnosed by an actual psychiatrist, you can't just diagnose yourself. In the case that you have been diagnosed by a psychiatrist, I have some bad news for you, but you already DID see a doctor, a psychiatrist is an MD, those are the doctors the above bold section is referring to. Finally, no psychiatrist is going to force you to take any pills without your consent. 67.246.13.226 (talk) 07:51, 26 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I think this discussion in particular needs to proceed with great caution. If anyone believes, for any reason, that they are depressed or possibly suicidal, they need to be validated, not challenged. You might think they're speaking out of turn, or are simply wrong, but arguing the point helps no one. Validation does not mean agreeing with the diagnosis or how they arrived at their opinion; it means acknowledging the pain.


 * Depressed teens NEED TO KNOW that they don't have to feel so hopeless and alone. Relief is available. Lay down your friggin burden! Depression absolutely sucks. It hurts like hell, and it LIES. It tells you things are hopeless and prevents you from seeing options that might make things better. The pain and hopelessness aren't a good reflection of reality either. You have to know that. All medication does is tone those feelings down a bit so you can rationally decide what, if any, changes you want to make in your life, and therapy can be pretty helpful for that.


 * It's true that physicians now more than ever are well equipped to deal with teen (and adult) depression and suicidality. And of course, they don't force "happy pills" on anyone. Seeing a physician about depression or suicidal thoughts is a good first step, and please realize that it will probably not be the primary care physician who eventually provides the treatment. In urban areas where health professionals are widely available, patients will most likely be referred to an appropriate provider, likely a psychotherapist and/or psychiatrist. In rural areas where these professionals sometimes don't even exist, family physicians have a lot of training in the treatment of depression. Just give it a fair try. What do you have to lose? Dcs002 (talk) 07:27, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Use of "indigenous" minority groups
The article states that "indigenous" minority groups are at a higher risk for suicide. Should the "indigenous" be removed?

Mrscientistman (talk) 22:27, 26 November 2008 (UTC)mrscientistman

No, the indigenous is intentional, the only problem is that there is no cite 67.246.13.226 (talk) 07:54, 26 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Agreed. Indigenous is not an offensive term. In the US it's used by tribal entities broadly to include peoples from nations outside the US. For example, in 2004 the Menominee Nation hosted an international conference on sustainability titled Indigenous Wisdom. Dcs002 (talk) 07:34, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

typo, however im not sure quite how to fix it
"The findings also reported that antidepressant drugs reduced suicide risk than increase it."

you have the past tense (reduced) conflicting with present tense (increase), meaning both should be present or both should be past.

also, "than" could have been a misspelled "then", meaning the sentence should have read "antidepressant drugs reduce(d) suicide risk more, then increase(d) it" or the than was correct, in which case the sentence would read "antidepressant drugs reduce(d) suicide risk more than they increase(d) it" or "antidepressant drugs reduce(d) suicide risk less than they increase(d) it"

im not going to follow the cite and find out what the findings also reported, im just pointing this out to the people more involved with the upkeep of this article. not trying to be a grammar nazi, just friendly proof reading.

67.246.13.226 (talk) 08:29, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

checked the sitation - not right?
"However, some research has shown that this may have an unintended negative effect of suggesting suicide as an option for teenagers [11]." I looked up the citation for this and could not find this information anywhere. I know this is a common preconception about suicide education, but from what I had read, it was a false one. Would someone mind double checking the citation? I wouldn't want to delete it in case I missed something. 58.175.42.250 (talk) 17:28, 4 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I found this claim hard to believe too, but that's essentially what the Surgeon General said in that report. I changed the claim into a direct quote and attributed it in the text to the Surgeon General. He cited one study in that report to back up his statement, and I'm thinking of looking that up too. It might be a better citation for this information, if that is indeed what the study concluded. Even so, one single study isn't considered very strong evidence among researchers. It usually takes several to generate a consensus.


 * I'm always a bit skeptical of Surgeon Generals' statements after all the outlandish claims C. Everett Koop has made. They are physicians, who don't receive training in medical school on how to interpret research. Maybe some SG's have formal education in public health, maybe not, but they're political appointees. Satcher has also said some stuff about obesity that makes me wonder about his qualifications for the job. I don't like to take their word for things. Dcs002 (talk) 07:48, 5 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Ok, I thought so. I looked up the abstract for the study Satcher cited in his Surgeon General's report, and the conclusion of this study, which reported data from only two schools, was "The study failed to find convincing evidence of any program effect." I want to see the actual study text though before I do anything drastic to this article. Dcs002 (talk) 08:15, 5 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I just revised this section again, using the abstract for the citation, indicating that Satcher's claim didn't represent a consensus among public health professionals. Dcs002 (talk) 08:14, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Suicide prevention
This section is marked for neutrality issues. I've done some work on it -- added citations & subheadings, reworded things a bit, and moved the section on parental interest to the Causes section. Is it good enough to remove the neutrality cleanup mark? Dcs002 (talk) 09:01, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Needs a better name
This article seems to be about suicide of age 15-24, and therefore needs a better name. DJ Clayworth (talk) 23:20, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

i think that people ages 20-24 is still part of the teen suicide is because they havent quite got there things together to decide on what they what to do in life,so thats why those ages are still apart of teen suicide. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.39.35.101 (talk) 18:14, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

The first sentence of this article is grossly misleading. I read the original sources. The figure refers to suicides for all US citizens aged 10 and over. Suicide was the 11th leading cause of death for all US citizens aged 10 and over, with 30,622 suicides in 2001, or 33,289 in 2006 (the latest year for which I was able to find statistics). Suicide was the 3rd leading cause of death for US citizens in the 15 to 24 age range, with 4,599 suicides in 2004 (the latest year for which I was able to find statistics). Since I could not find the total number of suicides in the US for 2004, nor the number of teen suicides for 2006, it is difficult to construct a sentence that compares "apples to apples", in terms of showing what percentage of total suicides are teen suicides. Rate varies substantially, from approximately 6.2 to nearly 9.3 per 100,000 population.

This article seems to suggest that there were over 30,000 teen suicides in 2001. I could not figure out how to edit the first sentence, though. Can anyone else fix it, please? The source citations are the same. 82.132.139.112 (talk) 22:50, 8 October 2010 (UTC)Clarsa McElhaney, 8 Nov 2010

Call for new article
When the search term "youth suicide" is entered we are directed to "Teenage suicide in the United States" we need to either stop this happening and begin a new page for youth suicide or include the existing page in a broader commentary. I can provide relevant content as many others could also no doubt, however my editing skills fall short of either creating a new page that the wiki thinks already exists or changing the title of this existing article. This is a topic of immense importance and requires a far broader response. Perhaps someone else could create the new broader page or change the title of this one so others can add more relevant subject matter? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.77.163.110 (talk) 02:01, 2 January 2011 (UTC)
 * You have your "Youth suicide" article; please do not continue to insert off-topic material to this US-specific article. Australia is not part of the US. --Nat Gertler (talk) 15:11, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Dear Natgertler,

I hope you haven't taken my efforts to contribute to the wikipedia subject matter "Youth Suicide" personally?

I am a little ignorant of processes in here, but note that the search terms "youth suicide" were opening the on the page titled teenage suicide in the United States. I tried to add to that in the hope that you, and others with more editing skill than I would improve again both on the original and my addition. My hope was for a Youth Suicide entrey that had relevant content from around the world including from the United States as well as the many other countries that make up our world. I did leave a message in the talk page about the issue I saw with the youth suicide search terms opening on a single country perspective but my inexperience may be showing as this message doesn't appear to be there any more.

In closing please feel free to add to what I have contributed, I hope by working together we can provide more information that may lead to preventing youth suicide.

Best wishes, Need Peace. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Need Peace (talk • contribs) 15:17, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

September 2007 study
I took out the reference to the extremely simplistic and biased 2007 study. The study was a response to the 2004 warnings about the use of SSRIs on youth, and claimed that a decrease in the SSRI prescription rate resulted in a large increase in the youth suicide rate.

I would object to this study based on methodological, philosophical, and even more objective bases. Philosophically, this study was problematic, of course, because of the dedication to the biological model, and the conviction that emotional problems among young people were not connected to their circumstances. Objectively, after three and a half years, look at the predictions of the study. Supposedly, as young people stopped taking these drugs, the youth suicide rate was supposed to rise. That's not what happened. The study's authors were wrong. Not to confuse causation with correlation, but the youth suicide rate actually decreased when it was supposed to increase in those two or three years, even as the larger suicide rate did increase. The study's methodology and language was obviously quite bad.

I was concerned that this article would mislead people into thinking that drugs were an easy answer, and that it would offer simplistic explanations for the emotional problems of young people that would absolve parents and other grownups, and place the onus for young peoples' distress on belittling labels that drag these people down for life. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jakpa2001 (talk • contribs) 23:09, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

I really think all references to that study need to be taken off Wikipedia. For one thing, it's just one study. For another, because of the simplistic mindsets advocated by the language of that study, it's probably a quite destructive mindset to promote. There are a thousand different reasons why the biases of that study are not an OK thing to promote. Objectively and subjectively, I think this study needs to be put in perspective, and despite the publicity it got, it needs to be understood that this was rather destructive bad science. Whoever can get that section taken off, should.


 * I'm a little confused — are you and 98.149.111.47 the same person? If so, the reason I undid your content removal was that you didn't use an edit summary (as explained here, removing content without giving a reason is generally a bad idea).  Feel free, of course, to remove it again on the above basis.  — Tommyjb  ( talk )  20:47, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

Sex Ratio
At the moment it reads 'In the U.S, male adolescents commit suicide at a rate five times greater than that of female adolescents, although suicide attempts by females are three times as frequent as those by males' but https://books.google.co.za/books?id=uqqp-sDCjo4C&pg=PA216&lpg=PA216&dq=Gallup+also+finds+that+slightly+more+teenage+girls+than+boys+said+that+they+have+either+come+close+to,+or+actually+attempted,+suicide.&source=bl&ots=CRCBY5fltw&sig=XAM0YkgCidhjqpwMh-0DIxwizMc&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Gallup%20also%20finds%20that%20slightly%20more%20teenage%20girls%20than%20boys%20said%20that%20they%20have%20either%20come%20close%20to%2C%20or%20actually%20attempted%2C%20suicide.&f=false says that 9% of girls compared to 4% of boys have tried to commit suicide. Of course, that was over a decade ago. Is there a reference to say it's changed? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 105.226.203.142 (talk) 16:28, 16 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Those statistics aren't inherently at odds, as they're measuring different things. The first quoted statistic is about successful suicides, the second is about the number of suicide attempts, and the one you're introducing is the number of people who attempt. It may be (to used a simplified example) that the average female who attempts suicide attempts it more than once, the average male just once... which would go along with the first statistic, because if males are more likely to succeed in their attempts, they are less likely to be around to have the chance to try again. --Nat Gertler (talk) 16:45, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Teenage suicide in the United States. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20170504155435/https://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/suicide/youth_suicide.html to https://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/suicide/youth_suicide.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080111093102/http://www.stampoutsuicide.org.uk/ to http://www.stampoutsuicide.org.uk/

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Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 11:26, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

The definition of "teenager"
The opening sentence reads "Teenage suicide in the United States remains comparatively high in the 15 to 24 age group." But the word "teenage" means somewhere between 13 and 19 years old (inclusive). The 15-24 age range inappropriately leaves out the youngest teenagers and inappropriately includes a bunch of non-teenagers. We should present data specifically about people who are literally 13-19 years old, especially in the opening sentence.Sonicsuns (talk) 23:49, 17 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Ok, I did some digging and got better data, but now I'm not sure how to cite it. There's a CDC page at that lets you generate custom reports. If you create a custom age range of 13-19, you'll see that the 2016 suicide rate per 100,000 was 8.31. But I can't link directly to the results; I can only point to the first page and hope that the reader will be willing to fill out the form. How can I cite this? Sonicsuns (talk) 00:13, 18 November 2018 (UTC)

Understanding and preventing Teen Suicide
I would like to add a section focusing on school policy and the impact that it has had. The sources I will use are all from the Jstor database. WARD, JANICE E., and MELISSA A. ODEGARD. “A Proposal for Increasing Student Safety through Suicide Prevention in Schools.” The Clearing House, vol. 84, no. 4, 2011, pp. 144–149. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41304324. Accessed 1 June 2020. Bratsis, Michael E. “Health Wise: Preventing Teen Suicide.” The Science Teacher, vol. 81, no. 6, 2014, pp. 14–14. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43683478. Accessed 1 June 2020. Weiss, R. “Teen Suicide Clusters: More than Mimicry.” Science News, vol. 136, no. 22, 1989, pp. 342–342. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3974140. Accessed 1 June 2020. Garfinkel, Barry, and Jack Frymier. “Understanding and Preventing Teen Suicide: An Interview with Barry Garfinkel.” The Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 70, no. 4, 1988, pp. 290–293. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20403878. Accessed 1 June 2020. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Forresthearst (talk • contribs) 06:38, 1 June 2020 (UTC)

"committing"
Wikipedia does not have a style guide that I can find covering suicide. One editor boldly made a change to avoid the term "committed suicide", another reverted it apparently on the basis of lack of consensus, which seems insufficient. Per this RFC, "A minority of editors think "commit suicide" is archaic, and if some other equal or better formulation exists and a change is made, we should not tendentiously revert it." This reversion seems to have been tendentious. --Nat Gertler (talk) 23:35, 14 April 2021 (UTC)

This statistic seems incorrect
"Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people in the United States from the ages of 10 to 56."

The footnote links to an article that doesn't contain that stat.

Here is what I found from the CDC:

"In 2020, suicide was among the top 9 leading causes of death for people ages 10-64. Suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-14 and 25-34."

https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/index.html 71.105.54.193 (talk) 21:10, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

Needs some tables, maps, and graphs
Stats, maps. "Teen suicide" tab at top:
 * https://www.americashealthrankings.org

Fast way to put stats on US map state by state: --Timeshifter (talk) 04:36, 18 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Commons:File talk:Template map of US states and District of Columbia.svg/Instructions