Abuse of children on the rise.

Children accounted for more than half of all abuse cases treated at U.S. hospitals in 2005, according to the Agency for Health-care Research and Quality (AHRQ). About one-third of those children suffered from neglect, physical and psychological abuse, or physical battery such as shaken child syndrome, the agency said in its most recent News and Numbers release. The number of violence-related hospitalizations among both adults and children increased by 24,000 between 2002 and 2005, and about 4% of these patients were victims of sexual or other abuse, AHRQ said. Roughly 66% of all patients admitted to the hospital because of violence had attempted suicide or injured themselves on purpose and about 31% were victims of attempted murder, fights, rape, or other assaults.