The small island of Nantucket, MA has seen 3 teen suicides in a short period of time, according to the New York Times. Very sad. Statistically, three suicides in a high school of 400 represents a meaningful cluster, and a possible contagion effect. Whether it is or it isn’t contagion in Nantucket (it [...]
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NY Times: Short but Troubled Life Ended in Shooting and Suicide
October 12, 2007
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This NYT article about 14 year-old boy who died on Wednesday after critically wounding a teacher and classmates, is a case study in risk for adolescent suicide. Abuse/neglect history, legal trouble, access to weapons, social misfit, recent disciplinary action at school. The temporal proximity of his older brother’s arrest is also striking…again pointing to [...]
Read moreRisk of suicide in young children
June 12, 2007
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There is a lot of material available about assessing for risk of suicide in adolescents, but much less that focuses on small children. Some cases are relatively (and I mean relatively) straightforward, like the child who says he is going to kill himself in anger when he doesn’t get his way. But I have seen [...]
Read moreChildTrends Report: Teen deaths by homiside, suicide, and firearms
April 25, 2007
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Apropos of my recent posts reflecting about suicide, guns and homicide, colleague Bob Hawkes sent me a link to this report: Teen Homicide, Suicide, and Firearm Deaths, compiled by the Child Trends Databank. There are some nice figures in the report, including one nicely demonstrating recent declines in teen suicide rates (for related post see [...]
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