Teen Girls More Likely To Commit Suicide for Drug-Related Reasons

According to a recent government study done by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, teenage girls are three times more likely to attempt suicide for drug-related reasons than their male counterparts.

The study determined that an average of 178,423 emergency room visits per year from 2004 to 2008 for drug-related suicide attempts involved youngsters age 12 and older. Further, the research showed that while boys were more likely to attempt a drug-related suicide in the month of December, girls’ suicide rates were steady throughout the year.

Originally, the purpose of the analysis was to determine the number of, and timing of, drug-related suicide attempts between people ages 12 to 17, adults ages 18 to 49 and adults ages 50 and over.

The other notable finding in the research was that there was little noticable variation in suicide-attempt totals based on the seasons. Visit totals to emergency departments went from lows of 12,656 in February to highs of 16,812. Percent-wise, the numbers jumped from 7.1 percent to 9.4 percent.

Drug-related suicide attempts for girls proved to be around the 15,552 mark on average over the course of the year. Boys in the same age bracket, though, had a total of 5,283 suicide attempts.