Response to ‘International trends in male youth suicide and suicidal behaviour’

We read with great interest the recent article by Rice et al., titled "International trends in male youth suicide and suicidal behaviour."The study provides a valuable summary of suicide trends across different countries and highlights the growing crisis of substance abuse among male youth.However, the article did not include data from Taiwan.In this response, we present suicide trends from Taiwan and extend the discussion by providing quantitative analyses of diagnostic patterns and sex-specific differences in psychiatric emergency visits, which maybe correlated with the higher suicide rates observed among male youth.Our research demonstrates that the global increase in suicide rates and the prevalence of psychiatric disorders is mirrored in Taiwan's national data.Suicide rates have risen significantly since 2015 (from 15.1 per 100,000 in 2014 to 16.7 in 2023) (1).According to national suicide surveillance data from 2015 to 2023, suicide mortality increased by 400% among individuals aged 0-14 years and by 142% among those aged 15-24 years.Reported suicide risk cases rose even more dramatically-by 888% in the 0-14 age group and 302% in the 15-24 age group-while increases were less pronounced in older populations (116% in the 25-44 group, 118% in the 45-64 group, and 174% in those >65 years) (Supplementary Figure 1).We further examined data from emergency department patients who received psychiatric consultations at a tertiary medical center in Taipei between 2015 and 2023 (N = 9,548).Similar upward trends were observed: psychiatric emergency visits increased by 530% among individuals aged 0-14 years, 307.