Purpose

Youth suicide is increasing at a significant rate and is the second leading cause of death for adolescents. There is an urgent public health need to address the youth suicide. The objective of this study is to determine whether adolescents and young adults residing in states with greater mental health treatment capacity exhibited lower suicide rates than states with less treatment capacity.

Methods

We conducted a state-level analysis of mental health treatment capacity and suicide outcomes for adolescents and young adults aged 10–24 spanning 2002–2017 using data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other sources. Multivariable linear fixed-effects regression models tested the relationships among mental health treatment capacity and the total suicide, firearm suicide, and nonfirearm suicide rates per 100,000 persons aged 10–24.

Results

We found a statistically significant inverse relationship between nonfirearm suicide and mental health treatment capacity (p = .015). On average, a 10% increase in a state’s mental health workforce capacity was associated with a 1.35% relative reduction in the nonfirearm suicide rate for persons aged 10–24. There was no significant relationship between mental health treatment capacity and firearm suicide.

Conclusions

Greater mental health treatment appears to have a protective effect of modest magnitude against nonfirearm suicide among adolescents and young adults. Our findings underscore the importance of state-level efforts to improve mental health interventions and promote mental health awareness. However, firearm regulations may provide greater protective effects against this most lethal method of firearm suicide.

中文翻译：

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预防青少年自杀：心理健康治疗能力更强的州自杀率是否更低？

目的

青少年自杀率正在显着增加，是青少年死亡的第二大原因。解决青少年自杀问题迫切需要公共卫生。本研究的目的是确定居住在心理健康治疗能力更强的州的青少年和年轻人的自杀率是否低于治疗能力较差的州。

方法

我们使用美国疾病控制和预防中心、美国劳工统计局、联邦调查局和其他来源。多变量线性固定效应回归模型检验了心理健康治疗能力与每 100,000 名 10-24 岁人群的总自杀率、枪支自杀率和非枪支自杀率之间的关系。

结果

我们发现非枪支自杀与心理健康治疗能力之间存在统计学上显着的负相关关系 ( p  = .015)。平均而言，一个州的精神卫生人力能力增加 10% 与 10-24 岁人群的非枪支自杀率相对降低 1.35% 相关。心理健康治疗能力与枪支自杀之间没有显着关系。

结论

更大的心理健康治疗似乎对青少年和年轻人的非枪支自杀具有适度的保护作用。我们的研究结果强调了州一级努力改善心理健康干预和提高心理健康意识的重要性。但是，枪支法规可能会针对这种最致命的枪支自杀方法提供更大的保护作用。