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Searches On Suicide Jumped Nearly 20 Percent Following Netflix's '13 Reasons Why' Debut
Suicide-related searches on Google jumped significantly after the release of the show聽13 Reasons Why,聽according to a report published Monday in聽JAMA Internal Medicine. The聽show, which premiered in March on Netflix, follows the fictional story of Hannah Baker, a teenager who commits suicide and leaves behind 13 tapes detailing why she decided to end her life. (Toy, 7/31)
鈥淥ur analyses suggest 13 Reasons Why, in its present form, has both increased suicidal awareness while unintentionally increasing suicidal ideation,鈥� the authors wrote. 鈥淭he most rising queries focused on suicidal ideation. For instance, 鈥榟ow to commit suicide鈥�, 鈥榗ommit suicide鈥� and 鈥榟ow to kill yourself鈥� were all significantly higher.鈥澛燨verall, suicide queries were 19 percent higher in the 19 days following the series鈥� release, 鈥渞eflecting 900,000 to 1.5 million more searches than expected,鈥� the paper reported. (Murgia, 7/31)