AKIPRESS.COM - Emergency room visits for non-fatal, self-inflicted injuries surged in recent years among US girls and young women, especially those between the ages of 10 and 14, according to a new study.

However, rates of self-harm among boys and young men between the ages of 10 and 24 remained stable throughout the years 2001 through 2015, the researchers told CNN.

"Suicide is preventable," said Melissa C. Mercado, lead author of the study published Tuesday in JAMA and a behavioral scientist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"These findings underscore the need for the implementation of evidence-based, comprehensive suicide- and self-harm-prevention strategies."

Young people have higher rates of nonfatal self-inflicted injuries, according to Mercado. She and her co-authors looked at first-time nonfatal injury visits among people 10 to 24 years old at 66 hospital emergency rooms from 2001 through 2015.