Finding the Reasons Why: Looking for Answers in Trends of Child and Youth Suicides
Arielle H. Sheftall, PhD, Principal Investigator, Center for Suicide Prevention and Research
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among 10- to 24-year-olds. And even as awareness grows, suicide rates continue to climb. For decades, researchers have scoured the data to look for patterns that could help them understand why so many youth continue to be affected.
At the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research in the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, this search has revealed unique patterns in suicide for specific populations of children and young adults, including differences based on age, sex and race. Now, they are using the findings as a first step toward developing prevention strategies.
“If we can identify a pattern, if the epidemiology of suicide has changed over time and rates are increasing…the results from these studies allow us to start asking what are some of the factors that might have changed that are driving the increase,” says Jeff Bridge, PhD, director of the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research.
One notable study was published in May 2019 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The team at Nationwide Children’s was among several to investigate, and the first to publish their results, on whether or not the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” could be linked to increased suicides.
What they found was compelling: The suicide rate among youth aged 10-17 years increased by almost 30% in the months following the release of the first season.
Following the “13 Reasons Why” study, Netflix removed the graphic suicide scene aired during the first season, saying it was “mindful about the ongoing debate around the show” and that it was doing so based on advice from medical experts.
“We hope the actions taken based on the evidence our study provided are proof of concept for how acting to reverse trends where a clear association has been established can save lives,” says Arielle Sheftall, PhD, principal investigator in the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research and co-author of the study. “Based on our research findings, we have an opportunity to significantly reduce the number of deaths by suicide among young people.”
CITATION:
Bridge JA, Greenhouse JB, Ruch D, Stevens J, Ackerman J, Sheftall AH, Horowitz LM, Kelleher KJ, Campo JV. Association between the Release of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why and Suicide Rates in the United States: An Interrupted Times Series Analysis. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 2019 Apr 28. pii: S0890- 8567(19)30288-6.
