Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among young people in the United States, a new study says. According to the research published in the journal JAMA Open Network, most people who died by suicide had no documented mental health diagnosis.

According to research conducted by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, at least three out of five young people who committed suicide between January 2010 and December 2021 had no previously diagnosed mental health problem. Researchers say this means that mental health problems in some young people are being overlooked or underdiagnosed and thus undertreated.

The study included data on people aged 10-24 from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Violent Death Reporting System, and included more than 40,000 suicide cases.

Only 40.4 percent of the young people who died had a documented mental health diagnosis, such as clinical depression, schizophrenia or an anxiety disorder.

“We found that certain youth who died by suicide were less likely to have documented mental health conditions, including those who used firearms, were of minority race or ethnicity, were male and were under the age of 14,” study co-author Dr. Jennifer Hoffman, an emergency medicine physician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a news release.

“Our findings point to a critical need to increase equitable access to mental health screening, diagnosis, and treatment for all youth,” he said.

American Indians were less in number than whites

According to the data, the likelihood of having a mental health diagnosis varied among racial and ethnic groups and among those who used firearms. American Indian or Alaska Native and Black youth were less likely to have documentation than whites, and Hispanic youth were less likely than non-Hispanics.

Hoffman said his colleagues at other U.S. institutions also found that young people aged 10-14 were less likely to be affected than those aged 20-24, and men and boys were less likely than women and girls.

The researchers found that 33.2 percent of youth who died from firearms had a mental health diagnosis, compared to 61.6 percent of those who died from poisoning, 45.8 percent of those who died from hanging, strangulation or suffocation, and 44.2 percent of those who died from other causes.

The data also showed that most suicides, 64.8 percent, occurred at home, nearly half the deaths – 46.8 percent – ​​were caused by firearms, and the most common causes were intimate partner problems and family relationship problems.

Experts call for increasing counselling among youth

Hoffman said it’s important for parents to encourage their young children to seek counseling.

“To reduce the risk of suicide due to firearms among youth, counseling is needed to encourage parents to safely store firearms in the home. In addition to doctors’ offices, these messages should be delivered in community and school settings,” he said. “Safe storage laws, also known as child-access prevention laws, have also been demonstrated to reduce firearm suicide rates, and more states need to enact this type of life-saving legislation.”

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