Despite the hysteria a year ago about a one-year spike in teenage suicide rates, new data show what many were previously cautioning about — drawing broad conclusions from a single datapoint:

The new research, based on 1996-2005 national data, appears in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association. It shows the rate dropped by about 5 percent [...] from 1,983 suicides in 2004 to 1,883 in 2005.

You’d think everyone would be happy with such a drop, but no, people commenting on the study in the article continue to express caution, despite the decline.

Also not surprising is the lack of anyone drawing any type of causal relationships in the article tied to the suicide rate decline. When things go badly, everyone looks to point fingers at a cause. When things go well, everyone just assumes that whatever we’re doing must be working.

Well, we’re happy and we’re not particularly worried. We’re happy that fewer teens died that year due to a self-inflicted and senseless death. And we’re happy that nobody is making broad statements about causality of this decline which are not supported by the data.

Read the full article: Teen suicides dip, experts worry rate remains high

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 3 Sep 2008
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