SUICIDE RATE AMONG CANADIAN GIRLS INCREASING

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/761341?src=mpnews&spon=12

Suicide rates in Canada are increasing in girls aged 10 to 19 years, but they are decreasing among boys in that age group, new data show. In 2008, the analysis showed that there were 233 suicides in young Canadians aged 10
to 19 years, accounting for 20.4% of all deaths in that age group ( . . . ).

However, when the researchers stratified the data by age and sex, they found significant variation. Among children aged 10 to 14 years, the suicide rate was 1.2 per 100,000. Of these 25 deaths, 64% were in males, and 88% were due to suffocation. Among adolescents aged 15 to 19 years, the overall suicide rate in 2008 was 9.2 per 100,000; of these 208 deaths, 67% were in males, and suffocation was again the primary cause of death, responsible for 73% of the suicides in boys and 78% of the suicides in girls.

Suicide rates among boys aged 10 to 14 years did not change significantly throughout the 29-year study period; the overall rate was 1.6 per 100,000 in
2008. Suicide rates among male adolescents aged 15 to 19 years showed a downward trend ( . . . ) In girls aged 10 to 14 years, suicide rates increased sporadically from 0.6 per 100,000 in 1980 to 0.9 per 100,000 in 2008 ( . . . ) Among teenage girls aged 15 to 19 years, suicide rates increased from 3.7 per 100,000 in 1980 to 6.2 per 100,000 in 2008, for an annual increase in rate of 1.8% per year ( . . . ) "Limiting access to firearms, poisons and elevated structures has some potential to mitigate the risk of suicide; however, suffocation, the predominant means of committing suicide among boys and girls, is not amenable to this type of primary prevention," the authors write ( . . . ).

Laurence J. Kirmayer, MD, from McGill University, writes that the results of
this study are consistent with data from other countries. (He) writes that the Internet has provided explicit information on methods of suicide and that this may increase suicidal ideation in vulnerable youth, as well as influence their choice of method should they decide to take their own life. But he emphasizes that social and economic deprivation is associated with higher rates of suicide, and that the Internet, with its ability to convey "vivid images of autonomy, mobility and conspicuous consumption," may intensify feelings of deprivation among children in deprived areas. "These adversities are particularly relevant for Aboriginal youth in many communities across Canada. Both male and female Aboriginal youth die from suicide at rates much higher than their non-Aboriginal counterparts. Hence, Aboriginal youth are likely over-represented in these numbers," Dr. Kirmayer notes ( . . . ).