A study on the National Poison Data System (NPDS) has found that suspected suicide attempts via self-poisoning in children have increased by 26.7 percent from 2015 to 2020 with researchers highlighting the nation’s increasing mental health crisis amongst adolescents.
“Our study is one of a number that demonstrates that we are experiencing an unprecedented mental health crisis in younger age groups,” said Dr. Christopher Holstege, chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology at the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine on May 31.
The authors from UVA also cautioned that their data is an underrepresentation of “the actual number of suspected suicides by self-poisoning,” as NPDS—of which the study was based on—relies on voluntary reports alone….