Social media 'could cut suicide'

The report says new media could be used to direct young people to seek help

Social media sites should be harnessed to help prevent suicide among young people, according to researchers.

Writing in <link> <caption>The Lancet</caption> <altText>Lancet article</altText> <url href="http://www.thelancet.com/series/suicide" platform="highweb"/> </link> , the researchers from Stirling and Oxford Universities said the sites could help build on government campaigns by providing support for vulnerable young people.

In the past, internet sites have been criticised for encouraging self-harm.

But the report says new media could instead be used to direct young people to seek help.

In a study by Stirling University in 2009, <link> <caption>one in five school children</caption> <altText>Previous study</altText> <url href="http://www.thelancet.com/series/suicide" platform="highweb"/> </link> said the internet, including social networking sites, influenced their decision to self-harm.

Now the researchers say the possible dangers posed by new media could be counteracted if the sites provided support for vulnerable young people.

They say because it is still a relatively new phenomenon, it is important to understand why internet postings can influence some young people to self-harm or take their own life.

Deaths reduced

Professor Rory O'Connor, of Stirling University's Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory, said: "The reasons for adolescent suicide and self-harm are multiple and complex.

"My colleagues and I see that the challenge is in ensuring that new media provide support for vulnerable young people, rather than helping or encouraging self-destructive behaviours.

"For example, we should harness the internet and social media to help destigmatise mental health problems, to signpost people to sources of help and to promote help-seeking."

The Scottish government anti-suicide strategy Choose Life, introduced in 2003, has seen deaths reduced by 14% - although the rate is still higher than in England.

Between 2000 and 2006, the suicide rate in Scotland was 79% higher than in England, while for young Scots aged 15-44, it was twice as high.

Professor Keith Hawton of Oxford University's Centre for Suicide Research said: "Although suicide is uncommon in adolescents compared with non-fatal self-harm, it is always a tragic outcome.

"Further research in this area is urgently required if we are to make any headway in reducing the number of young people who either cause themselves significant harm or take their own lives."