Suicidal behavior nearly doubles among U.S. kids

Suicide attempts and talk about suicide are rising alarmingly among America’s kids, with emergency departments seeing a near doubling of cases over less than a decade, a new study reveals.

Among children aged 5 to 18, suicidal thoughts and attempts led to more than 1.1 million ER visits in 2015 — up from about 580,000 in 2007, according to an analysis of U.S. data.

“What we found was very troubling,” said lead researcher Dr. Brett Burstein, a pediatric emergency medicine doctor at Montreal Children’s Hospital in Canada.

Half of the patients were 13 and older, half younger, with 43% between 5 and 10 years of age, the study found.