Suicidal thoughts, attempts among young people up 47% since 2019

Young people said more often that they had thought about suicide in the second quarter of this year than in the first three months of the year. General practitioners also registered more suicide attempts among young people between the ages of 12 and 25 than in the beginning of 2023, according to the latest quarterly survey by the Health Monitor.

In 2019, the number of suicidal thoughts and attempts was 47 percent lower than now. Since the coronavirus pandemic, more young people have had mental complaints. The Netwerk GOR (Health Research in Disasters) uses the Health Monitor to map out the consequences of the coronavirus crisis on health.

The quarterly survey showed that young people went to the doctor less often with anxious and depressed feelings in the past quarter than in the previous one. About the same number of young people said they felt lonely, stressed, or had mental health complaints as in March.

The research is carried out on behalf of the Ministry of Public Health, Welfare, and Sport and the organization ZonMw.