Hospitals see 25% increase in youth admissions for attempted suicide, self-harm, report finds

The number of children admitted to hospitals for suicidal behavior has soared, according to a new report by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

An analysis of over 4 million hospitalizations found that pediatric stays for mental health issues increased by more than 25% from 2009 to 2019 for children aged 3 to 17, according to the analysis. Hospitalizations for self-harm and suicide saw a 30 percentage point increase, from 31% in 2009 to 64% in 2019.

“You have got a whole system failure here that is registering itself in suicidal kids,” said director of child and adolescent psychiatry, Dr. Gabrielle A. Carlson,, to the New York Times. “The hospital ends up being the place you go when all else fails,” said Carlson.

Mental health diagnoses, including attempted suicide and self-injury, accounted for an increasing number and proportion of pediatric acute care hospitalizations between 2009 and 2019. https://t.co/Pa80cuvU1H

— JAMA (@JAMA_current) March 28, 2023

The study utilized the Kid’s Inpatient Database, which is the largest national collection of data regarding pediatric discharges for youth, according to the study. Psychiatric hospitals and COVID-19 years were not included in the study, which indicates that the numbers provided might be seriously undercounted.

About one in six adolescents is estimated to have some sort of mental health issue, and suicide is the leading cause of death for this cohort of children, according to the JAMA report. Of those children, less than half received any degree of treatment.

This comes at the heels of a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that found that 57% of teen girls felt sad or hopeless in 2021, an increase from 36% in 2011. Moreover, 30% of teen girls strongly considered suicide in 2021, according to the report from the CDC.

JAMA did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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