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 Pediatricians Told To Be On Lookout For
Suicide Signs In Gay Teens
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: October 10, 2007 - 7:00 pm ET
(New York City) The American Academy of
Pediatrics has issued new guidelines for helping doctors identify potential
signs of suicide among teenagers.
Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for adolescents 15 to 19
years olds the Academy says in its updated guidelines, published in
the journal Pediatrics.
"Pediatricians can take steps to help reduce the
incidence of adolescent suicide by screening for depression and suicidal
ideation and behavior," the report by Benjamin N. Shain, MD, PhD, and colleagues from the
Committee on Adolescence says.
"Throughout adolescence, routine history taking should include questions
about mood disorders, suicidal thoughts, sexual orientation, and other risk
factors for suicide. Ideally, this should occur during acute care as well as
routine care visits."
Among the risk factors listed in the report is
gay or bisexual orientation. Other factors include a family history of suicide, parental history of mental health problems,
history of physical or sexual abuse, and the presence of firearms in the home.
The report notes that based on the
2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey of US ninth- through twelfth-grade students,
28.6 percent reported feeling sad or hopeless almost every day for at least 2 weeks in
a row during the 12 months before the survey. Sixteen percent had planned a suicide
attempt, 8.5 percent had attempted suicide, and 2.9 percent had made a suicide attempt that
required medical attention.
Last year a Canadian study found that lesbian
teens are far more likely to attempt suicide than gay teens or heterosexual
teens. (story)
The researchers reported that 38 per cent of
teenage lesbians and 30.4 per cent of bisexual girls said they had attempted
suicide in the previous year, compared to 8.2 per cent of heterosexual girls.
A similar study in Northern Ireland found that 25
percent of all young gay men have attempted suicide and nearly two thirds have
considered suicide. (story)
A third study, released this week
by the University of Washington suggests that college students who are
questioning their sexuality are at the greatest risk of suicide.
The students identified themselves as
heterosexual, but also reported being attracted to people of the same sex or
engaging in same-sex behavior. They were three times as likely as heterosexuals
to have made a plan to commit suicide in the past year.
Schoolyard homophobic bullying is one of the
leading causes of teen suicide.
A study released last year by the Gay, Lesbian
and Straight Education Network to coincide with last year's National Day of
Silence, showed that homophobia is widespread in the nation's schools.
Nearly one-in-five students reported they had
been physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation and over a tenth
because of their gender expression.
Three-quarters of students surveyed said that
over the past year they heard derogatory remarks such as "faggot" or
"dyke" frequently or often at school, and nearly nine out of ten
reported hearing "that's so gay" or "you're so gay" -
meaning stupid or worthless - frequently or often.
Over a third of students said they experienced
physical harassment at school on the basis of sexual orientation and more than a
quarter on the basis of their gender expression.
©365Gay.com 2007
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