A new study suggests these fears were not unfounded.

According to a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, United States youth ages 10-17 had a 28.9% increase in suicide rates in young males in the month (April 2017) following the debut of the show.

"The number of deaths by suicide recorded in April 2017 was greater than the number seen in any single month during the five-year period examined by the researchers," the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reported.

Increases in suicide rates among youth were also found in the month leading up to the shows release, and through December 2017, nine months after its release.

"The findings highlight the necessity of using best practices when portraying suicide in popular entertainment and in the media," NIMH stated in a press release on the study.

The study was conducted by multiple researchers from several different universities, hospitals, and the NIMH, which also funded the study.

The study found that the increase in suicides was statistically significant among young males.

The increase in suicides among young females in association with the show was not statistically significant.

For the study, researchers analyzed death rates due to suicide based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's web-based Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research.

Researchers found the increase in suicide rates even after adjusting for otherwise expected suicide rates during that time period, based on ongoing suicide trends.

They also found that suicide rates did not increase during the studied time period for people ages 18-64.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people between the ages of 10 and 24, according to the CDC.

Studies show that publicized suicides may also trigger a ripple effect of additional suicides within communities.

"The results of this study should raise awareness that young people are particularly vulnerable to the media," one author of the study, Lisa Horowitz, Ph.D., M.P.H., a clinical scientist in the NIMH Intramural Research Program, said in a statement.

"All disciplines, including the media, need to take good care to be constructive and thoughtful about topics that intersect with public health crises." Continue reading

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Speaking to the Denver Catholic, Aquila spoke of the 50 Colorado teens who took their own lives in 2014, the 72 in 2015, the 68 who died in in 2016 and several who died at the beginning of this school year. Read more

There was "clear evidence" that behaviour programmes focused on primary school children, contributed to reducing "later adolescent suicidality as wall as other unwanted behaviours".

This recommendation is contained Sir Peter Gluckman' report on youth suicide released on Wednesday.

Gluckman is the prime minister's chief science adviser.

The evidence-based discussion paper analyses the multiple factors involved in youth suicide and includes potential approaches to reduce New Zealand's rates.

The report says youth suicide is "more than simply a mental health issue and that, with what we know at present, the focus must also include an emphasis on primary prevention starting from very early in life".

"It also means raising mental health awareness and "ensuring that there are competent and adequate adult and peer support systems in secondary schools," Gluckman said.

The real problem with youth suicide was, "you can't predict it at the individual level".

"There are an awful lot of arguments and an awful lot of failed approaches in youth suicide," he said.

"That's why we're emphasising we need to be very careful with any intervention we do."

New Zealand's youth suicide rates are among the highest in the developed world.

The report has been prepared by Sir Peter Gluckman in conjunction with the Departmental Science Advisors from the Ministries of Health Education Justice and Social Development

It has had input from officials in the Ministry of Health.

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There are lots of places to get support. For others, click here.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Stuff
• The Office of the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor
• Image: TWAS

The problem of cyberbullying was brought to national attention several years ago by the passing of 13-year-old Megan Meier, who committed suicide subsequent to cyberbullying by Lori Drew, the mother of another girl.

Despite years of public campaigns and passage of laws against cyberbullying, the phenomenon is becoming increasingly common and children continue to suffer, with too may of them tragically taking their own lives.

Krystal was 12 when she killed herself.

The Auckland foster child had just had a violent argument with her 7-year-old sister over pocket money and both girls were sent to their room without dinner.

At the time, her foster mother knew Krystal was dealing with a lot, including guilt for breaking up her family of eight children after making allegations of sexual abuse against a former caregiver. She was missing her siblings.

But the woman, a caregiver with nine years' experience, felt the little girl from Northland was making progress - she had new friends, new clothes and a new Bebo page.

The last thing anyone expected was for Krystal's younger sister to come back downstairs just hours after the fight saying Krystal was dead.

"Krystal was more emotionally fragile than anyone realised at the time," a Child, Youth and Family manager told the inquest into her death last week. She was the youngest child to take her own life in state care. Social workers were unaware of the suicide risk because of her age, the manager said.

Krystal, whose last name is permanently suppressed to protect her siblings, died in 2008. Her death is yet to be ruled on by the coroner but there seems to be no doubt it was self-inflicted by a method that cannot be made public. Since then, there have been a handful of other pre-teen deaths that are also believed to be suicides, including a 10-year-old who died from a gunshot wound to the head, and a child aged between 5 and 9 who died last year.

"I think that kind of stuns people a bit to think that people that young could commit suicide," says chief coroner Neil MacLean.

"Most people struggle to even understand teen suicide - unless they're a teenager - so this is one of those things that really hit home." Read more

Sources

• Stuff
• Image: Injury Board