Slight decrease in teen suicide

Despite the confusingly high rates, there is a slight decrease in the number of teen suicides in the US. According to the recent available data, the teen suicide rate was around 5 per 100,000 during 2005 and it climbed to 18 percent during the previous year that shocked many experts.

Dr. David Fassler, who is a psychiatry professor at the University of Vermont, says that the recent report shows a disturbing upward trend that is being related to less use of antidepressants in teen.

This decrease in the use of antidepressants originated from the Food and Drug Administration’s warning label in 2004 that showed the drugs could increase risks for suicides.

Fassler believes that antidepressant drugs have benefits and can be handy to treat those depressions that lead to suicides and he rejects their associated risks. He told that he had no financial tie to antidepressants’ makers.

The new report shows that there were 1983 suicide cases in 2004 and they dropped to 1,883 in 2005.

Jeffrey Bridge, the lead author of the study, says that the current figures shows 600 more suicide cases than they were expected.

Patrick Tolan, who is the director of the University of Illinois-Chicago’ juvenile research institute ,says that it is quite important to track these teen suicides rates to note whether they keep on declining or get higher than expected level.

In US, suicide has become one of the leading causes of teen deaths and it is considered a major public health issue.

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