Suffocation Suicides Rising Among Youth

Though fewer U.S. youngsters are taking their own lives, suffocation has replaced guns as the chief method of suicide among Americans 10 to 14 years old, federal health researchers said on Thursday.

Though fewer U.S. youngsters are taking their own lives, suffocation has replaced guns as the chief method of suicide among Americans 10 to 14 years old, federal health researchers said on Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said reasons for the change in suicide methods were not fully understood, and called on public officials to develop prevention programs. A CDC study found that the suicide rate for people 10 to 19 years old dropped to 4.6 per 100,000 people in 2001 from 6.2 per 100,000 in 1992. Guns and suffocation were the chief methods of suicide, accounting for 90 percent of deaths in that age group, the agency said. Among those 10 to 14 years old, gun suicides fell to 90 in 2001 from 172 in 1992, while suffocation suicides rose to 163 in 2001 from 96 in 1992. Among teens 15 to 19 years old, deaths from self-inflicted shootings dropped to 838 in 2001 from 1,251 in 1992, while suffocation suicides rose to 551 in 2001 from 333 in 1992. Suicide is the 11th-leading cause of death in the United States, and the third among U.S. residents 10 to 24 years old, the CDC said. (Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Reuters Health News: June 2004)