自杀未遂的儿童和青少年的数量上升,父母应知道这些事
Attempted suicides and suicidal thoughts are on the rise among school-age children and teenagers, according to a new study published in Pediatrics. Based on data from 31 children's hospitals around the country, the percentage of emergency room visits related to suicidal thoughts or attempts more than doubled over an 8-year period-from 0.66% in 2008 to 1.82% in 2015. Overall, 115,856 suicide-related encounters were included in the study, nearly two-thirds of which involved girls. Hospitalization rates increased from 2008 to 2015 across all age groups, with the highest increases among 15- to 17-year-olds, followed by 12- to 14-year-olds. Rates increased for both boys and girls, but the spike was higher in girls. Lead author Gregory Plemmons, MD, associate professor of clinical pediatrics at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University, says the idea for the study came from anecdotal evidence they were seeing in their own emergency department. "We were seeing more kids coming in and being admitted with these issues, and we decided to look at what was going on nationwide," Dr. Plemmons told Health. "We were a little surprised to see that this is not just a local trend, but it's something that's happening all over the country." The researchers also noticed a surprising seasonal trend: Rates were highest during the fall and spring and lowest in the summer. October accounted for nearly twice as many encounters as July. "It seems like the school year probably has an influence," says Dr. Plemmons. "About 6 to 8 weeks after school started, nationwide we had twice as many kids coming in." This is especially surprising, Dr. Plemmons adds, because rates of suicidal thoughts and attempts among adults tend to follow the opposite pattern: They occur more in May, June, and July than in any other months. "We think what may be happening is that once school is back in session, cliques form again and cyberbullying increases," says Dr. Plemmons. "It's a very different world today than the middle school or high school that we as adults grew up in." |