FRIDAY, May 10, 2019 (HealthDay News) — In children aged younger than 19 years, the incidence and rate of suicide attempts using self-poisoning have increased since 2011, according to research published online May 1 in The Journal of Pediatrics.
Henry A. Spiller, from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and colleagues examined changes in the incidence, rate, and outcomes by patient age and sex in a retrospective review of intentional suspected-suicide self-poisoning cases from 2000 to 2018. Cases were reported to the National Poison Data System from U.S. poison centers for patients aged 10 to 24 years.
The researchers identified 1,627,825 intentional suspected-suicide self-poisoning cases, of which 71 percent involved females. From 2000 to 2010, there was a decrease in number and rate per 100,000 population for children aged 10 to 15 years, followed by a significant increase from 125 to 299 percent from 2011 to 2018. The increase from 2011 to 2018 among children aged 10 to 18 years was mainly driven by girls. Compared with the younger cases, in the 19- to 24-year-old group, there was a temporal delay and reduced increase in slope. There were 340,563 and 45,857 moderate and major outcomes, respectively, and 1,404 deaths. Over time and with age, the percentage of cases with a serious outcome, major effect, or death increased.
“The severity of outcomes in adolescents has also increased, especially in 10- to 15-year-olds,” Spiller said in a statement.
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