Is suicidal behaviour increasing among Australian youth?

The rate of suicide of 15- to 19-year-old Australian boys appears to have doubled since 1965. Some of this rise might be due to a trend by coroners to reach a verdict of suicide more frequently than previously. One in seven deaths of teenage boys is now termed suicide. Hospital admissions of boys and girls in Western Australia for attempted suicide doubled in the past decade. These figures indicate that suicidal behaviour among the young constitutes a serious problem for health and welfare services.