Evaluation of Suicides Among US Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Evaluation of Suicides Among US Adolescents During the COVID-19 PandemicIn 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics declared a state of emergency regarding child and adolescent mental health. 1 During the COVID-19 pandemic, US adolescents have been affected by the widespread loss of primary caregivers.Suicide-risk screenings have yielded higher positive rates than during the prepandemic period 2 ; thus, we sought to measure suicide-related mortality in this population.Methods | Through partnerships with 14 state departments of public health, we collected data from 2015 through 2020 for 85 102 decedents with suicide as the cause of death.MIT