The reasons for the steady decline in suicides among young people in the UK are explored in two studies by researchers from the University of Bristol published on bmj.com today.

Suicidal tendencies increase among teenagers in Sweden.

At least 121 U.S. soldier committed suicide in 2007 – the whole number rose by 20 percent in comparison to 2006.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released alarming statistics that show the suicide rate for American children and teenagers was up between 2003 to 2004. That is the most recent period of death records compiled in the United States. The CDC says the rate among young girls that year was especially high.

The suicide rate among preteen and young teen American girls spiked dramatically in a disturbing shift that health officials say they cannot fully explain.

In the first nationally representative study to examine the relationship between survey measures of household firearm ownership and state level rates of suicide in the U.S., researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) found that suicide rates among children, women and men of all ages are higher in states where more households have guns. The study appears in the April 2007 issue of The Journal of Trauma.