Scary news

So today's NY Times reports on an alarming trend: suicide among Americans aged 10-24 increased by 8% in 2003-2004, which they say is the largest jump in 15 years. The sharpest increase has been among teen girls.

This will no doubt revive the question as to whether anti-depressants (and their attendant black box warning) are harmful or helpful for teens as well as concerns about why so many teens are depressed and suicidal in the first place.

I'm, however, hung up on a different issue. The CDC released these results, which span 2003-2004, yesterday. We are approaching the end of 2007. At best, these figures are three years old. I'm no statistician, but... what's been going on for the past 3 years? Are even more kids killing themselves? Did it increase another 8% each year?

Considering that the results are already 3 years outdated, I can't really be heartened by the assertions that this "needs to be looked into..." Thoughts?