Recent researche regarding suicidal death among teens and pre-teens shows that the mortality rate has increased dramatically over the years.

Compared to the 1990-2003 period when suicide rates dropped 28.5 percent, 2004-present show increases of over 8 percent. This is the largest spike in 15 years.

Reports also say that hanging and suffocation among girls and young women are now preferred rather than using firearms.

“This is a dramatic and huge increase. While it’s not clear whether it’s a one-year spike or the start of a trend, the news signals a need for more effective prevention methods, said Ileana Arias, director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.”

The report, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found the biggest increase was in suicides by girls ages 10-14, which increased 76 percent, from 56 in 2003 to 94 in 2004. The report also found a dramatic change in the most common method of suicide by girls, from guns in 1990 to hanging and suffocation.

Hanging and suffocation accounted for 71.4 percent of suicide deaths in girls 10-14, 49 percent in the 15-19 group and 34.2 percent in women 20-24. The change is possibly due to easier access to rope than to firearms, Arias said.

It is possible that this new trend toward hanging and asphyxiation is linked to a choking game that has recently become popular among schoolchildren.

As its name implies, the "game" usually involves using the hands, rope, or fabric to choke another child until he or she loses consciousness. The payoffs appear to be the brief "high" achieved during the loss and regain of oxygen to the brain, and the amusement derived from seeing a peer become disoriented.

As might be expected, this game has resulted in deaths. However, the CDC does not believe that a significant number of these deaths have been misclassified as suicides. It remains unclear whether the game is linked to the growing acceptability of hanging and asphyxiation as a suicide method.

The surge in teen suicide also coincides with a drop in antidepressant prescriptions for teens. This is due to concerns that the drugs may increase suicide risk for a subset of young people. Some psychiatrists feel this drop in prescribing is behind the surge in teen suicides, but Arias says this isn't the only issue involved.

"It is important to recognize that suicide is a multidimensional and complex problem. As much as we would like to attribute it to a single source, we cannot do that," she said. "So while antidepressant medication may have role in suicidal ideation, it not the only factor."

"It is possible that some subgroups of patients do become worse when given antidepressants, but the larger population benefits," Thomas Laughren, MD, head of the FDA's psychiatric products division, said at the news conference. "It is possible for two different things to be happening at the same time. We will continue to monitor suicide rates and antidepressant prescribing and take whatever regulatory steps are necessary."