The recent study has shown that majority of American youngsters had suicidal thoughts at one point of time in their lives.

Psychologist Dr David J Drum and colleagues from the University of Texas at Austin analyzed the data collected from a  web-based survey conducted by the National Research Consortium of Counseling Centers in Higher Education during Spring 2006 regarding suicidal thoughts and behaviors in youngsters.

The study showed that more than half of college students have considered suicide at some points in their lives. While 15% out of these students admitted having seriously tried killing themselves and more than 5% were reported making a suicide attempt.

Researchers analyzed the data collected from students in 70 colleges. The average age of the 15,010 undergraduates included in the survey was 22 years while the average age of the 11,441 graduates in the survey was 30 years.

The study showed that 6 per cent of undergraduates and 4 percent of graduates said they had seriously considered suicide in the last 12 months. Researchers found out that frequency of suicidal thoughts is more than once in two thirds of students who think about suicide. Researchers found out that 14 per cent of undergraduates and 8 per cent of graduate students who had attempted to commit suicide in the last 12 months .These students had suicidal thoughts often.

Researchers found that students with suicidal thoughts don’t get required medical assistance. The study showed that more than 50 per cent of students who had recently experienced a suicidal crisis hadn’t sought any professional help. Moreover their near and dear ones are not aware about such suicidal thoughts. Researchers found that 19 per cent of undergraduates and 28 per cent of graduates who had attempted suicide needed medical attention. Half of these students had to commit suicide with a drug overdose.

Researchers found that there are mainly four reasons behind attempts to commit suicide that include:

- wanting relief from emotional or physical pain;
- problems with relationships;
- desire to end their lives;
- academic and school problems.

Researchers claim that American youth can be freed from grip of suicidal thoughts through integrated efforts of everyone from campus administrators to student leaders to advisers to faculty, parents, and counselors. Researchers added that new treatment models should be evolved to help these youngsters. They added that present treatment models only help students after they reach crisis.