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Almost 1,000,000 teens think suicide
USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), May, 2006
Almost 1,000,000 adolescents had made a plan to commit suicide during their worst or most recent episode of major depression, and 712,000 attempted suicide during such episodes, contends a study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Washington, D.C.
The report defines "major depressive episode" as a period of at least two weeks in which a person experiences a depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities and has at least five of the nine symptoms of depression described in the psychiatrists' Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders--Fourth Edition (DSM-IV).
"Suicide is a preventable tragedy," says Charles Curie, a SAMHSA administrator. "It is a thief that sets no boundaries and seeks victims of all ages; from all racial, religious, ethnic, and multi-ethnic groups; across all socio-economic divides; and within urban and rural communities nationwide."
COPYRIGHT 2006 Society for the Advancement of Education
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
