Three
million American teens have thought seriously about or even attempted
suicide, a government survey released on Sunday showed.
More than 13% of young Americans between 14 and 17 years of age
considered suicide in 2000, according to the report from the US
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Only 36% of them had received mental health treatment or counseling,
SAMHSA noted.
Depression is the main cause of suicide, SAMHSA administrator
Charles Curie explained in a statement.
"We need to help teens make the link between untreated depression
and the risk for suicide, and help them identify serious depression
or suicide risk in a friend," Curie said. "We must encourage
teens to tell a responsible adult when a friend is at risk for
suicide."
More than one third of the 3 million teens aged 12 to 17 who
said they thought about suicide in the past 12 months actually
tried it, the survey done by SAMHSA found.
Girls were twice as likely as boys to say they thought about
suicide, but race and areas did not seem to make a difference,
the report indicates. The highest rate was noted in the western
part of the country, where 13.5% of children aged 12 to 17 reported
having had thoughts of suicide.
(Agencies)
Updated: 2002-07-19 01:00
居里說："我們需要幫助青少年了解如果精神抑郁患者不進行及時治療就會有自殺的危險，還要幫助他們判斷自己的朋友是否患有嚴重的精神抑郁癥或有自殺傾向。我們必須鼓勵青少年在發現自己有朋友有自殺的念頭時，及時通知成年人。"