Number of Kids Visiting ER with Suicidal Thoughts, Attempts Has Doubled

(FW) – Between 2007 and 2015, the number of children and teenagers in the U.S. who visited hospitals with suicidal ideation and attempts doubled. The study, made up of data compiled by the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, sampled 300 emergency rooms and tracked patients between the ages of 15 and 18, according to CNN. The research was published Monday by JAMA Pediatrics.

Emergency room medical personnel in 2007 received 580,000 suicidal cases. By 2015, that number escalated to 1.12 million. Dr. Brett Burstein, who served as the lead author of the study and is pediatric emergency room physician at Montreal Children’s Hospital of McGill University Health Centre, told CNN he finds the steep increase “very alarming.” READ MORE