Survey shows suicidal thoughts frequent on U.S. college campuses

William Atkins
Wednesday, 20 August 2008 18:35

Science - Health

A 2006 Web-conducted survey of students on seventy colleges and universities across the United States has shown that 15 out of 100 college students have seriously thought about suicide to solve their problems.


The study of about 26,000 college students has concluded that about 50% of them have had at least one episode of suicidal thoughts some time in their lives, while 15% of college students have seriously thought about suicide and 5% have actually attempted suicide.

The National Research Consortium of Counseling Centers in Higher Education (Research Consortium), part of the University of Texas (UT) Counseling and Mental Health Center (Austin), conducted the study. UT suicide experts and counseling professionals wrote the paper summarizing their conclusions.

U.S. psychologist David J. Drum and fellow co-authors from UT presented their paper on Sunday, August 17, 2008, at the 116th Convention of the American Psychological Association, being held in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

The researchers also found that about 6% of undergraduate students and about 4% of graduate students have seriously considered suicide within the year before the 2006 survey was conducted.

According to the APA press release “Suicidal thoughts among college students more common than expected,” “The majority of students described their typical episode of suicidal thinking as intense and brief.”

The press release went on to say, “Most students described their typical episode of suicidal thinking as lasting one day or less and more than half of subjects queried said they opted not to confide in a friend or relative or seek professional help.”

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