Obesity rates in adolescents are going up, but when it comes to weight and suicide, the number on the scale may not matter as much as the teen's self-image.Researchers reported in last week's Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine that teens who see themselves as too fat or too thin could be at higher risk for suicide, regardless of how much they actually weigh. Of the 13,601 high school students asked to describe their weight, the teens who responded "very overweight" or "very underweight" were more likely to have thoughts of or to have attempted suicide than those who actually weighed in very high or low. Nearly 40 percent of teens who saw themselves as very overweight said they had considered suicide within the past year.

Copyright 2005, Used with permission from U.S.News & World Report.