Healio (10/13, Gramigna) reports, “The COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant changes in the dynamics of children’s suicide attempts,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data of 830 children aged 15 years or younger (mean age, 13.5 years; 1:4 ratio of boys to girls) with suicide attempt history who were admitted to the pediatric” emergency department “of a single hospital between January 2010 and April 2021.” The study revealed “a significant increase in the number of children’s suicide attempts between the lowest and highest levels of 12.2 and 22.5 in 2019 to 38.4 prior to the beginning of the second lockdown initiation in September 2020 and October and 40.5 in early November 2020 and December 2020, for respective increases of 116% and 299%.” The findings of the cross-sectional study were published online Oct. 7 in JAMA Network Open.
Related Links:
— “Children’s suicide attempts have increased during COVID-19 pandemic “Joe Gramigna, Healio, October 13, 2021