After a school-based prevention program, European teenagers were about half as likely to attempt suicide or to feel suicidal, a new study shows.
Danuta Wasserman, a professor of psychiatry at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said the program was likely successful because students “felt that the power of mastering their feelings, coping with stress and choosing solutions was in their hands and not decided or forced by adults.”
Suicide is the third leading cause of death between the ages of 10 and 24, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Suicide attempts are even more common, with some research suggesting that 4 to 8 percent of high school students try to kill themselves each year, the CDC says.
Those most at risk have a history of suicide attempts, mental illness or substance abuse, or a family history of mental illness and access to lethal methods.
[For more of this story, written by Madeline Kennedy, go to http://www.reuters.com/article...dUSKBN0L02U020150127]
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