CDC: Adolescents most liekly to have self-inflicted wounds

ATLANTA - Adolescents show up at hospital emergency rooms with self-inflicted injuries -- usually suicide attempts -- more often than any other age group. <br> <br> A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released today said hospitals in the United States treated 264,108 non-fatal, self-inflicted wounds in 2000. The study did not include fatal wounds. <br> <br> It found one self-inflicted injury for every 389 people age 15 to 19 in 2000. People age 20 to 24 were next, with one injury for every 423 people. <br> <br> The study is useful to public health officials because it can point them to the groups who are most likely to try to harm themselves -- even if it&#39;s only for attention. <br> <br> The study found that for all age groups, roughly 60 percent of all self-inflicted wounds are probable suicide attempts. The CDC estimates about 29,000 people commit suicide every year in the United States. <br> <br> The study also found that women are nearly 30 percent more likely than men to arrive at a hospital with a self-inflicted wound. <br> <br> Poisonings accounts for two-thirds of all non-deadly, self-inflicted wounds in the hospital study, and cuts accounted for about one-fourth. Gunshot wounds accounted for one percent.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/5/202147