Suicidal Thoughts

Think bullying doesn't hurt? A new study suggests otherwise, finding that a youth aged 10 to 17 who reports that he or she has been victimized by peers in the past year is nearly 2 1/2 times likelier to have suicidal thoughts than an adolescent who reports no recent victimization. If you add the experience of sexual assault or parental maltreatment to peer victimization, a child's likelihood of pondering suicide is 3.4 times and 4.4 times as high, respectively, as that of a child with no such recent history.

July saw a record number of suicides in the Army and among recent veterans. I was nearly one of them. I suffer from both traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, the two most common conditions of suicidal veterans. Sometimes life becomes overwhelming. This summer, as has happened often before, I experienced severe depression, which leads to isolation. Then, when I was feeling most hopeless, I also started feeling tremendously reckless. I found myself feeling aggressive and impulsive, feelings that fuel erratic behavior.

Nancy Emsley says she once lectured Junior Seau about the dangers of taking a powerful sleep-aid drug without getting a full night's sleep afterward. "He just rolled his eyes," the friend and workout partner of the late football star said. Emsley's account, part of a USA Today article on the days leading up to Seau's suicide last month, is quite telling. It paints a picture of a seemingly carefree guy who also took powerful drugs, sometimes not as directed, to combat a sleep disorder.

Facebook is connecting with military-support and service organizations to offer customized suicide-prevention services for veterans, active service members and their families. For many members of military families, social media serve as a lifeline, connecting them to various supportive communities to help them cope with their specific strains and stresses. So, in conjunction with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the nonprofit organization Blue Star Families, Facebook has unveiled a literal lifeline within the site, with informational and response tools customized for service members and their families.

In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration announced that antidepressant packages should carry a "black box" warning describing an increased risk of suicide and suicidal thoughts in children and youths up to age 25. The FDA action triggered a significant decline in antidepressant use among children and teens. Now, however, an analysis suggests there is no reason to believe that antidepressants influence suicidal thinking in kids. The paper, published online Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry , analyzed data from 41 clinical trials involving more than 9,000 adults and children.

Medications to treat mental health disorders is soaring among U.S. adults, according to data released Wednesday by Medco Health Solutions, a pharmacy benefit manager. Twenty percent of all adults said they took at least one medication to treat a mental disorder. Among women, 25% said they took such medication and 20% said they were using an antidepressant. The survey analyzed prescription drug trends among 2.5 million insured Americans from 2001 to 2010. Medco researchers also found that adults ages 20 to 44 had the greatest uptick in use of anti-anxiety medications, atypical antipsychotics and drugs to treat ADHD.

Eating disorders among teens is dangerous enough. Now researchers say these teens face a higher likelihood of having more psychological problems, including suicidal thoughts. There’s no sure-fire cure for any of these self-destructive and potentially fatal behaviors, but learning how to identify them is the first step. Friends may be the first to be aware that something's wrong. People with anorexia nervosa, for example, don't eat enough because they think they're too fat -- even though they may be very thin.

About 6% of surgeons reported having suicidal thoughts in the last year, but many are reluctant to seek help because they feared it would affect their medical license, according to a new study in the Archives of Surgery. The study, based on an anonymous survey of nearly 8,000 surgeons, found suicidal thoughts were tied to doctors' worries about making an error, a history of depression and burnout on the job. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic found that of the 6% who reported having suicidal thoughts in the previous year, 26% sought help.

Last month, a Palo Alto high school saw its fourth student suicide since May. Questions loom large: Why did this cluster of suicides happen, and how can the cycle be stopped? Public health officials and scientists use the term "suicide contagion" to describe the spread of suicidal thoughts among a group of people that results in such copycat acts. Researchers have studied suicide clusters to identify how the contagion might spread -- whether close friends of the victim are at more risk; whether more media coverage is associated with more deaths; and what telltale signs might point to the most vulnerable community members so that interventions can be targeted appropriately.

The mother of Columbine killer Dylan Klebold says she has been studying suicide in the decade since the high school massacre but had no idea her son was suicidal until she read his journals after his death. Susan Klebold's essay in next month's issue of O, the Oprah Magazine, is the most detailed response yet from any of the parents of Columbine killers Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. The teenagers killed 12 students and a teacher in the 1999 shooting rampage at Columbine High School in suburban Denver.