Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, and alcoholism are the leading causes in depression. Ninety percent of people with these disorders try to commit suicide.
The mean for teen suicide rates 7.4/100,000. Many countries outside of the United States had a higher suicide rate. Countries who had the largest amount of suicide rates include: Sri Lanka, Lithuania, Russia, and Kazakhstan. The United States is listed as the 34th state out of 90 for suicide rates in a 2004 study.
The study I researched focused on teen suicides ages 15-19. Males are more likely to commit suicide than females. However, in a few countries the number of female suicides surpassed the amount of male suicides, which include: Sri Lanka, El Salvador, Cuba, Ecuador, and China.
Suicide is a leading cause of death for teenagers ages 15-19.
Male suicides usually occur using firearms and female suicides occur mostly by poisoning themselves.
The website includes research that shows a list of risk factors for suicides:
- depression and other mental disorders, or a substance-abuse disorder (often in combination with other mental disorders). More than 90 percent of people who die by suicide have these risk factors.2
- prior suicide attempt
- family history of mental disorder or substance abuse
- family history of suicide
- family violence, including physical or sexual abuse
- firearms in the home, the method used in more than half of suicides
- incarceration
- exposure to the suicidal behavior of others, such as family members, peers, or media figures.
A brain chemical imbalance can also cause suicides. Research shows that a decrease of serotonin shows up in people who have attempted to commit suicide.
In a 2007 study American Indians and Alaska Natives along with Non-Hispanic whites were a lot more likely to commit suicide than Hispanics, Blacks, and Asian & Pacific Islanders.
Cognitive therapy reduced 50% of the attempted suicides. Psychotherapy is another option for people who suffer from suicide attempts. There may be medications out there to help with the chemical imbalance. Outreach programs may help as well.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1414751/
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/suicide-in-the-us-statistics-and-prevention/index.shtml#risk
