Bullying and cyberbullying are major risk factors for teen suicide. And both the bullies and their victims are at risk.
That's according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics that urges pediatricians and family doctors to routinely screen teenagers for suicide risks.
"Pediatricians need to be aware of the problem overall," saysBenjamin Shain, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and lead author of the report published online Monday in the journalPediatrics. "They should be screening for things like mood disorders, substance abuse as well as bullying."
Suicide is the number two cause of death of teenagers, after accidents including car crashes and accidental overdoses. The leading methods of suicide were suffocation and guns.
A CDC survey last year found that 17 percent of teens in high school said they had seriously considered suicide in the previous 12 months, and 2.7 percent had made an attempt that resulted in an injury.
[For more of this story, written by Alison Kodjak, go to http://www.npr.org/sections/he...risk-of-teen-suicide]
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