It's a success story with a serious catch. Over the last 20 years, the rate of suicide among people over 45 has been falling, thanks in part to doctors' aggressive treatment of depression in adults. But that gain has been almost entirely offset by a rising number of suicides among the young, especially young males. Suicide among children and adolescents has tripled in the last 45 years; of the 30,000 Americans who kill themselves annually, more than 5,000 are between the ages of 15 and 24.
"What we're seeing is a shift in the demographics of suicide," says psychiatrist John Mann, M.D., of Columbia University. "We're doing better at identifying treatments that work," says Mann of the effectiveness of antidepressants. "We're not doing so well at actually delivering them to those who need them."
Scientists aren't sure why more young people are killing themselves, but they do know that the onset of depression, and alcohol and substance abuse, is occurring earlier and earlier. It may be that children are maturing sooner, says Mann, or that there's more pressure on them.
