Suicide attempts, self-mutilations: hospitalizations of adolescents and young women increase

New illustration of a deterioration in the mental health of young people. According to a study published on Thursday, May 15, by the Drees (Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics), hospitalizations for attempted suicide or self-mutilation have increased “brutally and unprecedentedly” among adolescents and young women in about fifteen years. .

“Consistent with field observations and survey results that warn of a deterioration in the mental health of adolescents and young women, the rate of hospitalization for self-inflicted acts is increasing suddenly and unprecedentedly in this population,” it notes. this work in collaboration with Public Health France. , which covers the period 2007-2022.

Stabilized level in 2022

In 2022, nearly 85,000 people were hospitalized at least once, in medicine and surgery or psychiatry, in connection with a self-inflicted act (suicide attempt, scarification, burns, hitting a wall, etc.).

Almost two in three (64%) were girls or women. Residents of the most disadvantaged municipalities were also more affected. Started between 2015 and 2019, before the Covid pandemic, the progression of hospitalizations of adolescents and young women was interrupted in 2020, before resuming in 2021 in a “significantly more significant” way, says the statistics department of the Ministries of Health and Social Affairs.

In 2022, the levels stabilized compared to 2021 among young people between 10 and 14 years old and continued to increase among those between 15 and 24 years old “in a less marked way.”

The rise in psychiatry

In medicine and surgery, the average rate of hospitalizations for self-inflicted procedures increased by 71% in 2021-2022 compared to 2010-2019 for girls ages 10-14, by 44%, for girls ages 15-19, by 21%. for those from 20 to 19 years old. 24 years.

The increase in psychiatry was even greater: +246% for young people aged 10 to 14, +163% for those aged 15 to 19, +106% for those aged 20 to 24.

Two-thirds of hospitalizations of adolescents and young women for self-inflicted acts are related to voluntary drug poisoning, compared to injuries inflicted by a sharp object and even more violent acts.

Suicide attempts

By 2023, other data shows that in medicine and surgery, hospitalizations increased further for patients ages 10 to 14 and 20 to 24, but fell close to the 2022 level for those ages 15 to 19.

In psychiatry, the increase continued, but for all age groups and for both sexes, which could be due “in part to an improvement in statistical coding in these facilities,” according to Drees.

The increase in hospitalizations for suicide attempts or self-mutilation among girls and women, peaking around age 15, is not seen among older adults or boys and young men.

Without “male counterpart”

On the contrary, these hospitalizations have decreased continuously since 2010 among men and women between 30 and 55 years old, as if due to “a generational effect of people born in the 1970s and 1980s, who would commit fewer acts than their elders at the same age.” “says Vestidos.

Among boys and young men ages 10 to 24, these hospitalizations have remained stable for about fifteen years at levels much lower than those of girls.

And there was no particular increase in hospitalizations related to risky behavior (physical attacks, transport accidents, ingestion of toxic substances), possible “due to the increase in self-inflicted acts among girls.”

A national council for the refoundation (CNR) on mental health, promised by Emmanuel Macron, will be held in June and July, which will pay “particular attention to the mental health of young people,” the Ministry of Health indicated at the beginning of May.