Suicide by young people has become a social emergency in Lombardy, the Italian region with the highest recorded number of suicides by people between the ages of 11 and 24, according to a new study.
The study was compiled by experts at Milan's Fatebenefratelli Hospital and the Amico Charly association based on research begun a year ago and aimed at preventing suicide among the young.
According to Amico Charly, ''the latest data shows that, in Milan and its surrounding province, 4% of the 500,000 young people between the ages of 10 and 20 are at risk of committing suicide. In other words, around 20,000 youths''.
Data on Milan for 2005, said Dr. Claudio Mencacci, the head of Fatebenefratelli's psychiatric ward, ''showed that 15 adolescents committed suicide and an estimated 150 attempted to take their own lives''.
''If the average suicide rate among young people in Italy is 8.6 adolescents every 100,000, in Lombardy it runs at 10 every 100,000,'' he added.
