Teens, Parents Underestimate Teen Suicide Risk

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens, but teenagers and their parents underestimate the risk or think that it doesn't happen in their own communities, a new study shows.

Researchers conducted focus groups with parents and teens living in urban, suburban, or rural areas in an effort to better understand their attitudes and perceptions regarding adolescent suicide.

They found that parents and teenagers were able to identify many of the most common risk factors for suicide, including depression, alcohol and drug abuse, and relationship problems.

But both groups also tended to underestimate the risk in their own backyards, believing instead that it was a problem in other communities, says study researcher Kimberly A. Schwartz, MD, of UMass Memorial Children's Medical Center in Worcester, Mass.

In 2006, 1,771 children and teens between the ages of 10 and 19 committed suicide in the U.S. Teenage boys were four times as likely as teenage girls to die by suicide and they were also more likely to use guns and suffocation to kill themselves. Girls were more likely than boys to use pills.

Schwartz says many of the parents who participated in the focus groups expressed frustration about distinguishing between true warning signs of suicide and normal teen angst.

Both parents and teens wanted more information about how to identify and help at-risk teens.

The study appears in the February issue of Pediatrics.

Source: WebMD
http://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20100111/teens-parents-underestimate-teen-suicide-risk