The number of adolescents and young adults trying to take their lives with poison more than doubled in the US from 2010 to 2018. This alarming trend signals the need for more resources to support at-risk youth, according to authors of a study published in The Journal of Pediatrics.

Largely driven by girls, jumps were most significant among children ages 10 to 12 and 13 to 15. Data indicates that children in both age groups had experienced a decline in suicide-by-poisoning attempts from 2000 to 2010, but the numbers skyrocketed from 2011 to 2018—jumping almost 300 percent among 10-to-12-year-olds and by about 125 percent among 13-to-15-year-olds.

Overall, from January 2000 to November 2018, the study found more than 1.6 million suspected suicide-by-poisoning attempts among young people ages 10 to 24, based on reports to regional US Poison Control Centers. Among them, 71% were female.

Henry Spiller, the study’s lead author, said “Something is dramatically different, and it’s not good. Something’s going on with these kids, and we want to get a handle on it. We don’t want to frighten parents, but we want them to be aware … because it’s getting worse.”

John Ackerman, at the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research at Nationwide Children’s said, “Nonstop exposure to social media could be causing hopelessness by reducing the ability to handle stress, limiting creative activities and face-to-face communication and increasing feelings of disconnectedness.”