The CDC report states that the female suicide rate has increased from 4.0 women per 100,000 in 1999 to 5.8 in 2014. Meanwhile the male suicide rate, already at 17.8 per 100,00 in 1999, has increased to 20.8 in 2014. In other words, female suicide rates have increased by 1.8 women out of 100,000, while men’s have increased by 2.9 — 62% faster. But who cares about them right? It's all about the girls.

So you conveniently forget to mention that 4 of 5 suicides are men killing themselves? Ant that the absolute increase in male suicide was higher in the same period of time?

This is an article concerning health but is slanted. The suicide rate for men has increased substantially more and is multiples of times higher than that of women and adolescent girls. NPR is supposed to be the last truely balanced source for news. Please. you can do better. Shame shame shame. I expect much better from npr. Disappointing.

Men's suicide rate has actually climbed much faster than women's over the last 15 years. Story NPR? https://malemattersusa.word...

You know NPR-really?

Let's consider this in simple terms. The CDC numbers you rely on show:

Suicides among women increased from 4/100000 among women to 5.8/100000 among women
That's a net increase of approximately 2 women per 100,000.
Suicides among men increased from 17.8/100000 to 20.8/100000
That's a net increase of approximately 3 men per 100,000.

So-the rate of suicides among men increased 50% more than among women.
The total number of suicides is 350% higher among men.

Or let's look at this another way: Recent reports indicate gay and bi men are six times more likely than other groups to kill themselves.

If we reversed these numbers, and women were the most likely to kill themselves, your story would have been "Major health crisis, suicide among women skyrockets"

But instead, you've found a way to make it sound as if those in the group who are 350% less likely to commit suicide is where our entire focus should be.

There's a word for this.

Gynocentrism.

The next time you want to publish something based on your obvious belief in "the patriarchy", please check your bias.

Cogent. You laid it out well.

"There's a word for this. Gynocentrism." True, though I would have said, "There's a word for this. Sexism."

NPR gets most of its funds from men so that it can promote women over men. But I suspect many liberal men are happy to subjugate their entire sex to please the "feminists" who are sexists in feminist clothing.

So, I've been thinking about this, and I have to say from a health scientist standpoint that the reason is likely multifactorial. Yes, I think the people bringing up social media have a point. There probably is something to the constant exposure to bullying and negative comments/feeling that contributes to this. However, we also need to recognize the role of physical activity in creating mentally healthy, resilient children. Exercise has been shown in studies to be as effective as medication in the longterm in treating depression/anxiety. With the dramatic rise in obesity among everyone, including youth, in this country it's not surprising that people are more depressed. I bet if I could get the data and run an SEM model we would find that physical activity, obesity and social media are acting interdependently. If you want to reduce your child's risk of suicide, get them off the phone and into physical activities.

Rae Ellen Bichel presents a very compelling article about the rise of suicide, especially around adolescent girls. Bichel refers to several statistics spanning over 15 years by the National Center for Health Statistics that is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These facts establish logos and drive in the grueling facts that show a rise in teen suicide rates since 1999. To further highlight the death rate among teens, Bichel implements diction by referring to them, not as young adults, not as adolescents, but as youngsters. This use of diction highlights the innocence of these kids who have had a limited life before them, but have a full life ahead of them that is in danger of being cut short. Bichel also uses rhetorical question by asking"why such a sharp rise among adolescents, particularly girls?" and, "What is causing these increases to occur?". These questions help to relate to the audience and follow their thought processes.

Worked with teenagers for 18 years. 3 things that contribute not mentioned in the article:
1. Relationship with Dad & Adults. Girls with a good relationship with their father enter puberty 6 months later than the average of others around them (Chap Clark). Lack of a healthy network of adults. Every kid needs at least 5 adults beyond mom and dad to be a healthy network.
2. Social Media and Quantifiable Popularity. There is so much pressure for kids to look good and get lots of 'likes' on their social media streams. Lack of likes for this demographic fuels self-esteem issues.
3. Abuse. My guess would be to look at the abuse trends and you'll probably find some connections between these too.

NY Times published this article back in Sept 2014 that 'feels' applicable

"Should We All Take a Bit of Lithium?"
http://goo.gl/9jRv2Q

...and, here're some more articles about the benefits of small doses of lithium (much much smaller than prescribed, and in 'more-natural forms'). http://goo.gl/o2aAad

After having to listen to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton for the last few months who WOULDN'T want to commit suicide?

Technology is disrupting lives faster than ever. AI and robotics will eliminate jobs and will happen so fast that folks don't have any time to re skill. I think the rates of suicide will keep growing and all of these counselling is only a reactive step. I'm sorry if I sound very harsh but life is harsh!

Trump's fault. Once we make Obama our God He will fix all the things.

Hmmm. Interesting. The article asserts a reduction of SSRI Rxs? Here is just one report from the WHO, March of 2016:

"A rise in the use of anti-depressant drugs among children is a concern, the World Health Organization has said. A warning in 2004 brought a fall in use of the drugs, after fears that some could lead to suicidal behaviour. But a new study shows that between 2005 and 2012 there was a 54% increase in the number of young people prescribed them in the UK. It also showed rises in Denmark (60%), Germany (49%), the US (26%) and the Netherlands (17%) in the same period."

http://www.bbc.com/news/hea...

The rate is up in adolescent girls, but it is still very low. Abortions on demand are still over 2,700 a day.

I believe some of this is brought on by over protectiveness and the modified social interaction brought about with technology. I turned 50 this month. When I was a kid there was little else to do but GO OUTSIDE and play with other kids. I played and some times fought with my friends. I dealt with bullies in school and learned how to get to school with my lunch money. My parents did not baby me, particularly my mom. At 5 y/o I mixed salt and pepper, blew on it, got it in my eyes and fell out whining. No sympathy, I met the same result after rolling around in the grass with the dog and coming up with the worst itch attack ever, "Get in the tub, you'll know better next time".

It was all accountability, right was right and wrong was wrong and each had a consequence. I was allowed to experience life and shielded from none of it, good, or bad. I had solid input from my extended family as well, my grand mother encouraged me to stand up for myself "Pick up something and knock the he.. out of him", my uncle taught me to use good judgement, "Don't spend money on things you don't need while traveling, you may have an emergency".

No one tried to make life a breeze for me, they taught me how to deal with it directly and indirectly. If the rules of today governing child rearing and acceptable conduct in school were applied to my childhood, I along with my siblings, parents and classmates would be in the same jail altogether. There was no such thing as a kid that couldn't be dealt with in school and if you were kicked out you earned it. It doesn't take much these days.

You can't protect kids from the perils of life from day one and expect them to successfully navigate its stresses when they start to break away and move toward independence having little to no experience at facing difficult challenges on their own.

Social skills are second to cell phones, i pads and video games today and that's a common denominator across the board, at the dinner table, in church, at school, while driving, etc... Sign of the times.

Wow, NPR. What this article COMPLETELY ignores is the fact that men commit suicide 3-5 times more than women do. Men are the biggest demographic of suicide victims in every single age group. The tripling of adolescent girls' suicide rates is tragic, but it speaks to the relatively low numbers of their rates. Going from .01 to .03 is a tripling, but going from 100.01 to 100.03 is statistically insignificant; even though the increase was the same in quantity, the percentage increase makes it seem more meaningful in one group than the other. But, I am curious about why NPR doesn't mention men at all and doesn't include them in the graph. Isn't this along the same lines of writing an article about the rates of male breast cancer and not mentioning women AT ALL? Does NPR even care that men die from suicide, or are women the only important humans on this planet?

It's probably just another "privilege" men have to commit suicide more than women. Kind of like the "privilege" of being drafted and sent to die in a foreign country.

Suicide is the ultimate in Darwinism.

They're human beings with problems. Have some compassion.

"Remove any firearms"!?!?!!!
That's unconstitutional..

If faith in God means it is time to do unto others as you would have done unto yourself, then yes. If it means that you hold some secret key to life and love and respect for each other Mr. Bolton you fail.

America has chosen sin over God. It will get worse. This is a time for repentance and faith in Jesus. "For He says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation." -2 Corinthians 6:2

Think he has been saying that for 2016 plus years. Wonderful results don't you think.

NOTHING happens unless people believe and have faith that they will. If you hadn't believed and had faith that you could get up in the morning, you wouldn't.

Nah. It's usually the cat meowing at me, then the dog saying I gotta pee that gets me up in the morning.

The steady decline in age of puberty onset is definitely a factor, but no one has been able to identify a causal element in this prodigious evolution, which appears to affect boys as well as girls, but which will have differing personal implications for each. This trend affects all developed nations, and appears to be even broader, though hard numbers are not as well documented in developing nations. The rate is prodigious, estimated at a decline in four to five months in age of onset for each passing decade, for girls, with similar rates but at least a year offset for boys.

Young women tend to use pills in suicide attempts. We are in the middle of an explosion of use and abuse of very powerful prescription pain killers. If the "success" rate of suicide goes up, even if the number of attempts do not, the suicide rate will go up. I would look at the data on the cause of death. Wouldn't surprise me at all if prescription drugs were a big part of the increase.

Suicidal people may not be alone, but loneliness is a prime culprit. If a stage of personal development leans towards a profound sense of desolation, it would be easy to decide that nothing exists to grasp an escape towards support, or self- vindication. And a person who exercises logic to validate their sense of futility is very vulnerable to self destruction.

You definitely realize at one point that no one else understands how sick you are. That becomes overwhelmingly frustrating.

Sick? That's a remarkable thing to say. Since survival is such an over- riding instinct, it's easy to assume that a suicidal person might be mentally ill. That's not always true.

90% of the time it is.

I think this article, and the authors of the study, need to evaluate their data better. While rates of increase were greatest in the early teens, the absolute numbers increased by almost identical amounts for the first three categories. That is suspicious. It suggests there was a methodological change in the way numbers were created, rather than a trend in the underlying disease process. Statistics are very difficult things, so conclusions based on one study should be very circumspect.

I don't understand the numbers here. One chart says that for all Americans, the suicide rate is 13 per 100,000.

Yet the when suicides are broken down by age, the age group of women with the highest suicide rate is only 9.8 per 100,000 -- and the other age groups all have much lower rates.

How is it possible that every age group of women could have suicide rates well below the rate for Americans as a whole?

Are there any groups not included in the charts that could explain this discrepancy?

The chart doesn't include men, who have a much higher suicide rate than women.

I am by no means an expert, but I do have a theory as to a contributing factor in the rise of suicides among the young, and I can sum it up in two words: Cyber-bullying.

When I was young and was being bullied on a daily basis, the internet was not around yet, thank goodness. However, the internet is now everywhere, and once something goes on the internet, it is there forever.

We have all seen and heard horror stories of young people being cyber-bullied and/or shamed for any number of different reasons, and this type of abuse coupled with bullying that also takes place in person takes a toll. This can be especially true if the family of the young person being bullied (cyber and/or in person) is not emotionally supportive.

This begs the question of what can be done about this? Well, for one thing, parents need to parent. They need to take an active role in their child's activities (online or otherwise), and if they find out that their child is either bullying another child or is being bullied, they must intervene immediately! Taking a hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil attitude to these goings-on does a disservice to the child, whether they are bullying or are being bullied:

a. If the child is committing the bullying, and the parents know and take no action (or Heaven forbid, actually encourage the child in this behavior) it sends a message to that child that they can do whatever they want, behave any way they want, and treat others around them any way they want without having to face the consequences of their actions. When that child graduates college and has to step out into the real world, they will end up learning the hard way that their actions and behaviors do have consequences.
b. If the child is being bullied, and the parents know and take no action, it sends an equally clear message to that child, i.e., that they are not worth protecting and not worth saving. This can not only devastate a child's sense of self-respect and self-image, but in the long run can alienate the child from the rest of the family. The child feels isolated, and completely, utterly alone, and comes to believe that they cannot trust anyone, not even their own flesh and blood. Such feelings can negatively impact all of their other relationships into adulthood as well, be they professional or personal.

Along with being involved in the child's activities, there also needs to be a return to instilling in children the difference between right and wrong, and the idea of treating others as you would want to be treated. There needs to be rules, and there needs to be consequences for not playing by those rules. Furthermore, there must be a willingness at times to say "no" to the child, mean it, and stick to it. I am not sure when this happened exactly, but nowadays it seems like saying "no" to a child has become a dirty word; that mentality has got to go.

Last, but not least, the child has to know that there is an open line of communication with his/her family. The child needs to know that if there is something on their minds, he/she can go to their parents and talk to them about anything, and the parents will be both receptive and supportive of the child and his/her concerns.

This. When I was bullied back in the 90's, I could count on it stopping if I made it through the school day. Now, it doesn't stop at the school gates, and it's put down in writing in a public setting, where people can see it, many times anonymously, or through channels where a teen can't take it down, or may not realize what measures they can take. Even if a bullied teenager is taken off the internet, those messages are seen by other teenagers, who may reinforce the bullying the teenager receives at school.

You can't punch rumors and gossip.

More affordable mental healthcare! Less jazz wholes like Cruz and Trump!

This is the era of girls talking to each other more than ever. It might be related.

We've robbed our girls and boys of the ability to be young and make mistakes without being burned at the stake in the public square. We ask our youth to grow up faster, to know how to handle sex and enormous peer pressure at earlier and earlier ages. All that was there in past generations, but it most often didn't have the sting until 8th grade or high school. Now it starts in 4th and 5th grade. I feel so sorry for little kids. They get such a warped view of the world and adulthood, not just of childhood and adolescence. For years, whenever I've sat with my kid and watched tv after dinner, I've turned and been forced to ask/remind, over and over, "You know that's not real, right? That not really the way it is (fill in the blank - with either life, friendship, love, sex). You know these are actors, right, with scripts written toward the lowest elements of the masses of society in order to get your attention and persuade your brain to believe something that isn't?" Man, it is so hard to grow up in America now without becoming stressed and jaded by middle school.

According to today's WSJ, the preferred method of suicide for men is firearms whereas for women, it is poison.

Yet ANOTHER blow against the gun-control meme of "means matters"--the idea that gun-control reduces suicide.

This group--adolescent girls--that has experienced the worse rise in suicides is one of the groups LEAST likely to use guns.

percentage of suicides committed using firearms
overall population, 2014: 49.9
women, all ages, 2014: 31.0
girls aged 10-14, 2014: 25.3
girls aged 10-14, 1999: 46.0
All figures from CDC WISQARS.

Looks like girls aged 10-14 had a HUGE increase in suicides at the same time that their percentage of suicides using firearms fell by almost half.

"Means matters" is a lie.

SOOO, you don't want to even take a baby step toward preventing ~ half the suicides?

nice.

Gun-control prevents NO suicides, since guns do not CAUSE suicide, but are merely one means of suicide.

In fact, gun-control efforts CAUSE more suicides, by diverting political attention and effort away from suicide prevention.

Sooo...you're not interested in suicide prevention, only in gun-control.

I don't think you can draw any conclusions at all about guns from these data. It is certainly NOT a blow against gun-control. It is not a factor FOR gun control either.

It is a blow against the false claims that gun-control equals suicide prevention. And we have much more data besides.

Gun-controllers, by focusing only on guns, have attempted to hide the MASSIVE increase in "non-gun suicides":
Suicide Firearms Deaths and Age-Adjusted Rate per 100,000
1999 16,599 5.96
2014 21,334 6.34
Suicide Non-Firearm Deaths and Age-Adjusted Rate per 100,000
1999 12,600 4.51
2014 21,439 6.59
All figures from CDC WISQARS.

So:
--The current rate and number of non-firearm suicides is higher than the rate and number of firearm suicides
--The number of firearm suicides has increased by 29%; the number of non-firearm suicides by 70%.
--The rate of firearm suicides has increased by 6.4%; the rate of non-firearm suicides by 46%

Looks like gun-controllers--with all their "means matters" anti-gun nonsense--are concealing the fact that "gun suicides" are simply rising WITH overall suicides, and that they are actually rising MORE SLOWLY than "non-gun suicides". Worse, by ignoring suicide prevention and promoting only gun-control, gun-controllers--especially the ones masquerading as "public health researchers--are contributing to the worsening of this problem, and showing contempt for the lives of those lost to the MASSIVE increase in non-gun suicides.

"Means matters" is a lie.

The next group with the highest spike in suicides is females aged 45-64. The U.S. has long refused to admit it has a massive problem with violent men and misogyny, generation after generation, particularly among minorities. The happiest females in every poll are those who are unmarried and childless. Given that most female rape and homicide victims are brutalized by males they know, they safest demographic would seem to be unmarried, childless lesbians. ;-)

Re: " The happiest females..." Citation?

"The U.S. has long refused to admit it has a massive problem with violent men and misogyny, generation after generation, particularly among minorities"

Misogyny. There is that word again. I do not think it means what you think it means.

"So, because of the shifting age of puberty onset, girls might be
opening the door to anxiety, depression and other psychiatric disorders
earlier on in life."

This might actually have a lot to do with it. Teachers are trained - and learn themselves how - to spot developmental, learning and social issues with students. If students are experiencing these kinds of issues before they get to the adults looking for those issues, and the adults who know better how to address these issues, they might not have the resources older students have.