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 Suicide is rare among these very young children, but it does happen,
lead author Jeffrey A. Bridge of The Research Institute at
Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio told Reuters Health
by email.
The difference in suicide rates between young children of the two
races is masked by the overall suicide rate for all young children,
which remained stable during those 20 years, he and his colleagues
wrote in JAMA Pediatrics.
“When I initially looked at the results I thought we had made a
mistake in the analyses because historically white youth in the
United States have had higher suicide rates than black youth,” said
Bridge.
He and his colleagues examined U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) records on suicide among kids from five to 11 years
old between 1993 and 2012.
A total of 657 children died by suicide during that time - an
average of 33 per year, the researchers found. About 84 percent of
the deaths occurred among boys. Hanging and suffocation was the most
common method.
The overall suicide rate remained stable at about one suicide per
one million children during the 20-year period.
However, the suicide rate nearly doubled among black children during
that time while it fell among white children, the researchers found.
The increase in suicides among black children was isolated to boys,
among whom the rate grew from about 1.8 to about 3.5 for every
million children.
For white boys, the suicide rate declined from about 2 to about 1.3
suicides per one million children over the 20 years.
“Many factors – including increased exposure to violence and
traumatic stress; early onset of puberty; and lower likelihood to
seek help for depression, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts –
may be contributing to the disparity, but the specific impact of
each of these factors is unclear,” Bridge said.
“Along the same lines, for many years black youth have used mental
health services less than white children and youth,” said Stacey
Freedenthal of the University of Denver, who was not part of the new
study. “This could be a factor in suicide rates, but why now when
the differences in service use have existed for so long?”
Suicide rates are also on the rise for black adolescents and adults,
particularly among black males, Freedenthal told Reuters Health by
email. “It’s possible that this increase in black children’s
suicides is part of the same phenomenon.”
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It’s also possible that child suicide may be more often investigated
or reported in the black community than in the white community, but
the actual suicide rates are the same, according to Carl L. Tishler
of The Ohio State University Department of Psychiatry in Columbus,
who was not part of the new study.
“I’m saying ‘may’ because we don’t know,” Tishler told Reuters
Health by phone.
“What’s significant is that there is a clear group of children who
do feel that badly, who are pushed by what’s going on in their lives
to the point that they don’t want to live anymore,” he said.
Children who are victims of domestic abuse are at higher risk for
suicide, according to research, and those in homes racked by
protracted, difficult divorce may also be at increased risk, he
said.
“Parents need to know that children under the age of 12 can and
sometimes do think about suicide,” Bridge said. “It is important to
ask children directly about suicide if there is a concern about a
child.”
Warning signs include suicidal statements, being unhappy for an
extended period, withdrawing from friends or school activities or
being increasingly aggressive or irritable.
“The research has shown that asking children directly about suicide
will not trigger subsequent suicidal thinking or behavior,” Bridge
said. “It does not hurt to ask.”
Parents who see these signs should consider taking the child to a
mental health professional, he said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1FlKpiJ JAMA Pediaitrcs, online May 18, 2015.
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