“I think the use of social media in a teenager with pre-existing concerns does fuel the fire a bit,” he says.Īlthough Dr. Poncin has noticed that many teenagers with depression-especially girls-turn to the online world. “There is tantalizing data as far as the effects of social media, but I don’t think we have a good grip on that association,” says Yann Poncin, MD, a Yale Child Study Center psychiatrist, and medical director of the Children’s Day Hospital and In-Home Intensive Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Service. Social media also comes under discussion. (In July 2019, producers followed advice from medical experts and cut a scene that portrayed the suicide.) While some argue that the show has stimulated a positive conversation around the topic, a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry showed a 28.9 percent increase in suicide rates in young people ages 10 to 17 in the month after the show’s release in April 2017.
#Teen suicide band controversy series
Controversy has swirled around the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why,” which highlights the story of a girl who killed herself and left behind tapes to explain why. One potential trigger may be what's called “contagion”-when one suicide seems to prompt a chain reaction of suicides. Why are teen suicides increasing?Įxperts aren’t sure why there is an escalation in teen suicides, and an increase in mental illnesses, like depression and bipolar disorder, that are linked to suicide. Even a single attempt, not to mention an actual suicide, is a tragedy, she says, and a sign that there is a need for more prevention. YNHCH is a Level 1 pediatric trauma center and provides subspecialty care for vulnerable children. Going to the emergency room may be the smartest thing these teenagers can do, Dr. Suicide is preventable, but rates of suicide are increasing worldwide, and it is now the second leading cause of death in adolescents and young adults (unintentional motor vehicle accidents are first). In some cases, there may be no clear reason at all, she says. Bechtel, MD, a Yale Medicine specialist in the YNHCH, where she says 1,500 to 1,700 of the 40,000 patients a year come in for care for anxiety, depression, and other mental health and behavioral problems, and about 500 of those have suicidal thinking or behavior. “It’s everything-all the pitfalls of being a teenager,” says Kirsten A. For some, it’s gender concerns-they have come out as trans or non-binary, and their peers are shutting them out. But they often have a story: Bullies are harassing them, their parents are divorcing, the academic pressure is crushing them.
They may or may not have struggled with a mental health issue before. Every October, after school starts-and each May, as it ends-there is a spike in the number of teenagers who go to the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital (YNHCH) emergency department because they are thinking about attempting suicide.