Study Finds Increase in Emergency Room Visits for Suicidal Ideation From 2016-2021

A new study has found that there was a continuous increase in emergency department visits coded for suicidal ideation for youth in Illinois, with a spike in visits in 2019 before the pandemic and a subsequent surge in hospitalizations through 2021. The study, “Trends in Suicidal Ideation-Related Emergency Department Visits for Youth in Illinois: 2016-2021,” which will be published in the December 2022 issue of Pediatrics (published online Nov. 14), notes that suicide is the second-leading cause of death among children and adolescents, and that mental health-related emergency department visits were increasing nationally before the COVID-19 pandemic. There were 81,051 emergency department visits coded for suicide ideation at 205 Illinois hospitals from January 2016 to June 2021 for youth ages 5-19 years, the study found. Emergency suicidal ideation visits increased 59% from 2016-2017 to 2019-2021, according to the study. Rapidly rising hospital use may reflect worsening mental illness and continued difficulty in accessing low cost, high-quality outpatient mental health services, the authors conclude.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.