U.S. says 82 youths have died in "choking game"

By Will Dunham
Reuters

At least 82 U.S. youths have died since 1995 engaging in "the choking game" in which they try to experience a fleeting "high" by cutting off the oxygen supply to the brain, U.S. health officials said on Thursday.

An unknown number of youths, mostly boys, are taking part in the practice in which they strangle themselves with their hands or a noose or have someone else strangle them, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report.

"They hope to get a cool and dreamy feeling, as they've described it," said Robin Toblin of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, who led the report.

The report, the first effort to track this nationwide, identified the deaths of 82 people ages 6 to 19 from 1995 to 2007 that appear to have been caused by the choking game. The CDC said the report likely underestimates the toll.

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