New data published in American Pediatrics suggests that the number of children hospitalized or fatally wounded from self-harm has significantly increased over the past few years.
According to the statistics, inpatient visits for self harm and suicide attempts more than doubled between 2006 and 2011. 29,000 children were hospitalized for self-injury in 2006 compared to 59,000 hospitalizations for similar incidents in 2011.
“The biggest news here is that there is a startling jump in the number of kids hospitalized for suicide and self injury between 2006 and 2011,” said Celeste Torio, PhD, MPH.
A deeper look into the statistics reveals:
- The largest increase in hospitalizations was among 10- to 14-year-olds, who had a 151 percent increase in hospitalizations.
- 5- to 9-year-olds exhibited a 130 percent increase.
- Children between the ages of 10 and 14 visited the hospital 50 percent more often for “all listed mental health conditions.”
Although the numbers are significantly higher, Torio said it’s possible that we’re simply casting a wider net for mental health issues and that prevention efforts are getting more people to seek help after self harming.
“Mental health needs could be greater or they could be being treated more seriously than before, but we can’t speculate on those reasons without more information.”
Researchers hope to conduct further studies to learn more about where these at-risk children live, what their home life is like, and if patterns emerge so intervention techniques can be put in place.
Issue Being Ignored
Kelly Kelleher, a pediatrician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, said that although correlation doesn’t equal causation, the numbers are truly concerning.
“This is very large numbers of kids presenting to the emergency rooms around the country with suicide attempts,” said Kelleher. “We are sweeping this problem under the rug, because if this ever happened in cancer or heart disease or even infectious disease, the country would stop. People would demand action immediately,” Kelleher said.
Kelleher noted that children from the poorest families are being admitted at higher rates, because when the family finally has the income to seek help, the condition is more severe. Other conditions that contribute to mental health problems and instances of self harm include:
- Lack of exercise
- Poor nutrition
- Trauma
- Exposure to violence
- Having a teenage mother
Kelleher said disadvantaged children are often subjected to more teasing and bullying, which can have severe mental implications at influential time in a child’s life.
“Poor children are just subject to a lot more of those insults, and so when something bad happens it tips the scale for them,” said Kelleher.
Dr. Silverman comments
This is truly a frightening study and it’s difficult to know where to go from here. Mental health issues can’t be solved with a magic pill or passive treatment. We need to actively help those with mental health issues instead of pushing them to the back burner or pretending they don’t exist.
It’s troubling to look at the state of mental health care in the world today. There is such a social stigma attached to the word “depression” that people don’t want to talk about it or open up about their issues. When someone breaks an ankle, we preform surgery, stabilize the bones, cast the foot, help the patient through physical therapy and let the injury heal over time. When someone says they have depression, we say things like, “It’ll get better,” “Well it could be worse,” or “Other people have it way worse, get over it.” We don’t sympathize or empathize the same between mental injuries and physical injuries, and that needs to change.
With children, we can’t keep chalking it up to “boys will be boys,” or “every girl gets picked on at some point or another.” Especially in today’s world, where the rise of social media has made bullying a 24/7 experience for some. We need to expand mental health treatment options and be more aggressive about preventing bullying in our school system, otherwise the problem is only going to get worse.
Related source: MedPage Today