After more than a decade with a declining suicide rate among youth, the suicide rate took an upward turn in 2004. There was an 18 percent increase for American youth under age 19 in 2004, though there is some debate about whether the trend continued in 2005. Wondering what's causing this turn of events? Oh, you know, just the usual – depression, war….and Facebook!?

From HealthNews.com's coverage:

While a link between the warnings and suicide risks has not been established, there are other factors that could be contributing to the increase in youth suicides. They include the influence of Internet social networking sites, an increase in suicide among U.S. troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, higher rates of untreated or undiagnosed depression, and access to firearms. Nearly 60 percent of all suicides in the United States are committed with a gun.

Social networking? I can understand how MySpace and Facebook can cause extra angst. All too often, I find myself mindlessly clicking through friends of friends of friends' Facebook profiles when I should be studying for exams, writing research papers or, above all, sleeping, and I feel an extra wave of anxiety.

Anastasia's guess is that they alluding to pro-suicide groups or profiles on these sites where young people who are contemplating suicide may go to find other depressed youth looking for validation of these feelings and ideas for how to do it. Scary. It's just like the pro-cutting/ana/mia sites. Instead of getting real professional support, they get validation for whatever self-destructive behavior they may be doing. Still, I would like to see a separate study on this before it gets officially added on as a cause of youth suicide….

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