After a 15 year decline, suicide rates among United States teenagers have currently began to spike, facing healthcare professionals with the sensitive issue of finding the causes to this unfortunate rise.

Studies performed by researchers from the Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, who analyzed data from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, have shown that 2004 and 2005 were the years with the highest suicide rates, with the latter one registering a 5% decrease in comparison to the former.

As for the reasons more and more teens make the dreadful decision to take their own life, they are yet to be fully understood.

The Federal Drug Administration issued, in 2003, a warning about selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the antidepressants that were most prescribed to teens, followed, a year later, by a request that the drugs’ package show a „black-box” warning, which is the strongest possible, of the fact that they may give rise to or increase suicidal thoughts. Consequently, the prescription rates went down by 20%.

While the major cause remains depression, there are other things that need to be factored in, such as young soldiers’ emotional shock during their serving time in conflict areas, the economical challenges one must face, especially if they are unemployed, and drug or alcohol abuse.

Furthermore, Jeff Bridge, an investigator in the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice, stated in his study on teen suicide factors that Internet social networking sites are to blame also, since they can, on one hand, stir up feelings of frustration and, on the other, build up peer pressure, both potentially leading to extreme gestures such as suicide.