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Reasons for State's Teen Suicide Rate Are Complex (Montana)
Reasons for state's teen suicide rate are complex, expert says
By ERIC NEWHOUSE
Tribune Projects Editor
Montana's teens have abnormally high suicide rates but there's no easy
explanation for the troubled behavior, the executive director of the American
Association of Suicidology told a conference organized by Voices of Hope in
Great
Falls on Thursday.
"We're in the infancy of studying suicide, and it's extraordinarily complex,"
said Lanny Berman of Washington, D.C. "It's not a single viral agent, nor is
it a single gene.
In Montana, suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth aged 10 to
24, surpassed only by accidenta l injuries such as car wrecks, drownings and
fire. "Montana ranks high in suicide over the past 16 years," Berman said.
"It's been in the top five states each year, and it was second during eight of
those 16 years."
But data on the causes is lacking, so sociologists can only make a series of
educated guesses about the reasons for this problem, he said.
One is apparently a greater rate of depression and other disorders among
suicide victims, Berman said. Seventy three percent of high-risk youths in a
national study described their first decade of life as lonely, compared with
only
17 percent of a "normal" control group.
"But for every depressed teen who kills himself, there are 600 more who
didn't, so depression is not the single answer," he said.
A second is a higher rate of alcohol and drug dependence. Heavy substance
users are four times more likely to commit suicide, he said. Conversely, 70
percent of th e teens suicides are frequent drug users and half have alcohol in
their systems at the time of death.
Third is an abnormally high access to firearms, said Berman. "A firearm is a
particularly lethal method," he explained. "If you point it toward a
vulnerable part of your body, you stand a 90 percent chance of dying." About 57
percent
of all teens kill themselves with guns nationally, Berman said, but it's
about 75 percent in Montana.
Joe Pablo, a counselor for the Salish and Kootenai Tribes, said most of
Montana's problems are worse on the reservations. "We have a high potential for
suicide," Pablo told the group, meeting Thursday and Friday in the Civic Center.
He said his tribe once controlled an area from Canada south to Three Forks
and from Idaho to the Sun River. "We lost a lot," he said. "Now we have
depression, alcoholism and cocaine addiction."
One of the conference organizers, Susie McIntyre of Voices of Hope, said
those problems are the reason for the conference. "The best time to plant a tree
is 20 years ago," she said. "The second best time is now."
Conference organizers hope that public awareness will lead to a statewide
crisis line to provide help to people considering suicide.
Originally published Friday, October 17, 2003
http://http://wwwlgreatfallstribute.com/news/stories/20031017/localnews/468678.html
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