The number of young people attempting suicide by poisoning has skyrocketed over the past decade — and more than 70 percent of the victims were females, according to a staggering study out Wednesday.

From 2008 to 2018, more than 1.6 million people ages 10 to 24 tried to kill themselves with poison, the results published in the Journal of Pediatrics said. Of that total, more than 1.1 million, or 71 percent, were girls or young women.

The disturbing trend is surging among teens. The annual number of attempted suicides by intentional poisoning doubled for kids younger than 19 — from 39,367 in 2000 to 78,474 in 2018.

“There’s something very alarming happening here,” Henry Spiller, the study’s co-author and director of the Central Ohio Poison Center, told the Washington Post. “Even if we don’t know why it’s happening, it’s a major signal that there are big problems in children’s lives right now and we as a society need to address them.”

The study also found that self-poisoning has resulted in an increase of serious injuries or deaths.

Suicide is the second-most common cause of death among youngsters in the US and the 10th-most common overall.

Researchers are working on a follow-up study to determine what poisonous items are being used in the attempted suicides.

“It looks like a wide variety, basically what’s in the home: Tylenol, antihistamines, their parents’ pills, medication for ADHD, anti-depressants,” said Spiller.

Experts are scratching their heads over the concerning statistics.

“Unfortunately, we can’t definitely answer the why,” said study co-author John Ackerman, a clinical psychologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. “That’s not how the data works.”

But Ackerman and Spiller told the Washington Post the spike could be connected to the rise of smartphones and social media.