Amid COVID-19 and lockdowns, the number of emergency room visits for suspected suicide attempts rose by 51% among teenage girls.
According to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hospitals observed massive increases over the past year in the number of young people attempting suicide.
As the agency reports:
During 2020, the proportion of mental health-related emergency department (ED) visits among adolescents aged 12–17 years increased 31% compared with that during 2019.
In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, ED visits for suspected suicide attempts began to increase among adolescents aged 12–17 years, especially girls. During February 21–March 20, 2021, suspected suicide attempt ED visits were 50.6% higher among girls aged 12–17 years than during the same period in 2019; among boys aged 12–17 years, suspected suicide attempt ED visits increased 3.7%.
Although the number of suspected suicide attempts dropped between spring 2019 and spring 2020, the rates began to drastically increase at the onset of COVID-19 and subsequent government lockdowns.
By the summer of 2020, the average weekly number of emergency visits for suicide attempts was 22.3% higher than during the summer of 2019. The trend worsened during the winter of 2021; the number of emergency visits rose by 39.1% in comparison to the previous year. – READ MORE
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