'More young women in emergency room after self-injury or suicide attempt'
Self-injury is a growing problem among teenage girls and women up to 30 years old.
The number of admissions to the emergency room because of self-inflicted injury or attempted suicide has increased by 50 per cent in nine years, writes the Volkskrant.
"This is an alarm signal," professor of child and adolescent psychiatry Arne Popma tells the newspaper. "That some young people are doing so badly that they take action." Performance pressure, reinforced by social media, he gives as a possible explanation for the worrying trend.
In 2013, 4,000 young women ended up in the emergency room because of self-harm or a suicide attempt. In 2022, there were 6,000. Almost half of them were admitted to hospital after treatment in the emergency room. The newspaper relies on an analysis by VeiligheidNL at the request of the 113 Suicide Prevention Foundation.
Previous research shows that about three-quarters of the cases involved a suspected suicide attempt. The rest of the cases involved self-harm.
Anxious or unhappy
Recent research by Utrecht University and the Trimbos Institute also contained worrying conclusions about mental health of girls and young women. Almost half of all high school girls fret a lot, are easily anxious and often feel unhappy. Among boys, these are far fewer: 14 per cent.
The mental state of young people has suffered from coronalockdowns. Two years later, although loneliness has decreased, a significant proportion of students still struggle with anxiety symptoms or depression.
Girls are much more likely to self-poison or take an overdose of medication than boys. According to the National Poisoning Information Centre, they account for 84 per cent of recorded cases. Over the past two years, the number of teenagers who knowingly overdose on medication has increased sharply, figures from the NCIC show.
Increase in suicide among young adults
Among teenagers, suicide has become the most common cause of death in recent decades. Previously, traffic accidents killed most people in this age group. This trend is partly explained by the sharp increase in road safety over half a century.
The overall number of suicides has been stable since 2018, according to CBS. But among young adults, there has been an increase.
Young men in particular are ending their lives, figures from 113 Suicide Prevention show. In the 20- to 30-year-old category, 70 per cent were men.
According to the Volkskrant, this is striking because women are more likely to be depressed and more likely to attempt suicide. A researcher says this may be because men are more likely to use heavier methods when attempting suicide.
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