Trends in Emergency Department Visits for Nonfatal Self-inflicted Injuries Among Youth Aged 10 to 24 Years in the United States, 2001-2015

Abstract

In the United States, youth have the highest burden of nonfatal self-inflicted injury (ie, deliberate physical harm against oneself, inclusive of suicidal and nonsuicidal intent) requiring medical attention. 1 One study found that emergency department (ED) visits for these injuries during the 1993 to 2008 period varied by age group, ranging from 1.1 to 9.6 per 1000 ED visits, with adolescents aged 15 to 19 years exhibiting the highest rates. 1 Selfinflicted injury is one of the strongest risk factors for suicide-the second-leading cause of death among those aged 10 to 24 years during 2015. 2 This study examined trends in nonfatal self-inflicted injuries treated in hospital EDs among US children, adolescents, and young adults aged 10 to 24 years (hereafter referred to as youth). MethodsThe National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP) collects data on all first-time visits for nonfatal injuries treated in 66 US hospital EDs through stratified probability sampling, allowing for the derivation of national estimates. 3

Syndromic Surveillance of Suicidal Ideation and Self-Directed Violence — United States, January 2017–December 2018

“…younger age groups. Other studies have described increases in rates among younger age groups in earlier years (1,8), and the current trends suggest persistence of these increases into 2018. The large increase in ED visits related to suicidal ideation, self-directed violence, or both for females aged 10-19 years suggests that a previously documented increase might also be continuing.…”

Commentary: Screens, Teens, and Psychological Well-Being: Evidence From Three Time-Use-Diary Studies

“…Analyze boys and girls together. The mental health crisis during the smartphone era has been much more pronounced among girls (e.g., Mercado et al, 2017;Spiller et al, 2019). Thus, it is important to determine if associations between digital media use and well-being are stronger for girls than for boys.…”

Regulating mobile mental health apps

“…In large part this may be triggered by the relative failure of legacy healthcare and its financing models to deal with increasing mental health populations that are not infrequently marginalized and distant from centers of care. In the United States alone, more than 43.4 million adults (about 18%) suffer from mental illness (National Institute of Mental Health, ) In addition to formally diagnosed mental illness, some authors express concern about behaviors that may signal mental health issues, such as increases in self‐harming behavior and suicidal ideation among young people (Mercado, Holland, Leemis, Stone, & Wang, ).…”