The University of California, Berkeley, has released a report in JAMA Pediatrics detailing a notable rise in self-harm incidents among adolescents in California, particularly among multiracial girls. This study examined data from emergency departments and inpatient care facilities across the state, covering the years 2005 to 2021, and included a total of 231,232 reports.

The research shows the overall rate of self-harm among young individuals more than doubled, increasing from 191 to 453 incidents per 100,000 person-years. A significant 73% of these incidents involved girls. Particularly striking is the approximately 75% increase in self-harm reports among multiracial teens since 2016, with multiracial girls having the highest rates by 2021.

Emily Liu, a Ph.D. candidate at UC Berkeley and first author of the research, noted, “It’s both the amount and also these increases that we’re seeing over time that are most concerning.” Liu emphasizes the importance of examining self-harm rates through the lens of multiple factors, including sex, age, and race or ethnicity, to understand the demographic differences more clearly.

The findings also indicate an unexpected rise in self-harm cases during the COVID-19 pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, when hospital visits were expected to decline. Despite this, incidences of self-harm continued to rise. Jennifer Ahern, a senior author of the study and a professor of epidemiology at UC Berkeley, remarked, “If anything, it’s a bit of an undercount for those two years.”

While the study does not delve into the causes of these trends, it does highlight the urgent need for awareness among clinicians and those working with adolescents to address both the treatment and prevention of self-harm. Liu states, “This is an urgent issue that they need to pay attention to. They should be prepared to be able to address health self-harm when it presents and also to think about ways to prevent it.”

The research by Liu and her colleagues from UC Berkeley, New York University, and the University of Minnesota aims to bring timely attention to this pressing public health concern.