June 7, 2019 – Youth Suicide

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Anchor lead: Girls are catching up with boys when it comes to suicide, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Among those 10 to 14 years of age, girls are starting to close the gap with boys when it comes to completed suicide, the most recent data show. Adam Kaplin, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins and a mood disorders expert, believes one factor is the FDA putting a black box warning on some antidepressant medicines.

Kaplin: The first black box warning was 2003-2004. 2006-7 it was extended up to the age of 25 and that’s when there was this huge inflection, in part because parents freaked out and didn’t want their kids put on any of these terrible black box warning drugs but I think more significantly because pediatricians stopped being comfortable prescribing them.  :22

Kaplin identifies another important factor.

Kaplin: Girls and boys have both started to be educated about how to complete a suicide through the use of social media in ways of doing it.  :10

Kaplin urges parents to be vigilant in scrutinizing their kid’s use of social media. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.