Though the youth suicide rate dropped in 2005 after a sharp rise in 2004, the number of suicides among U.S. teens still remains disturbingly high. Researchers have linked the results with the fear of antidepressants. Prescriptions for antidepressants declined after the Food and Drug Administration required that the drugs carry a “black box” warning. The black-box warning for antidepressants mentioned that the drugs could increase suicidal thoughts and behaviours among teens. Researchers speculated the warning led patients to stop taking the drugs.

Other studies showed that anti-depressants used declined among teens after drugmakers added prominent warnings about the risk of side effects such as suicidal thoughts to the prescribing information for all antidepressants in 2004, following the request of the Food and Drug Adminstration.

In 2004, the year when the FDA released the new rules, the youth suicide rate increased by 18%. The jump followed an eight year decline from 1996 to 2003, when the rate of suicides among teens declined by 25 percent.

Two months ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that showed that risky behaviour among teens declined. Fewer adolescents drink, smoke or have sex than their fellows did in 1991. Risky behaviour among US teenagers continues to decline and teens are starting to act more responsibly, the CDC report showed.

Although being a teenager isn’t as risky as it used to be, too many youths still put their lives and health at risk. The actual suicide rate is 4.49 deaths per 100,000; the actual is significantly higher than the predicted rate of suicides among teens, 3.8 deaths per 100,000 young people. The rate jumped to 4.74 for every 100,000 teenagers in 2004 from 4.15 in 2003, the study found. In 2004, suicide was the third leading cause of death among youngsters after car accidents and homicide.

Researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh analyzed data from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and managed to establish a trend line. The report was published in the Journal of American Medical Association. The trend line indicated that the suicide rates per 100,000 should have been between 3.5 and 4.2 in 2005. Overall, researchers estimated there were 292 more suicides than expected in 2005.

A previous report by the CDC found the biggest increase was in suicides by girls ages 10-14, which increased 76 percent, from 56 in 2003 to 94 in 2004.

As suicide is a multidimensional and complex problem, it cannot be attributed to a single source. The report signals a need for more effective prevention methods. Researchers call for more study to identify the causes of the suicide trend.

Factors such as the influence of Internet social networks, antidepressant medication, alcohol and drug use, family and relationship problems or history of mental illness, the increase in the rate among U.S. troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, higher rates of untreated or undiagnosed depression can influence the risk of suicide or suicide attempt by adolescents.