Suicide and Youth: Risk Factors

Abstract

Suicide occurs more often in older than in younger people, but is still one of the leading causes of death in late childhood and adolescence worldwide. This not only results in a direct loss of many young lives, but also has disruptive psychosocial and adverse socio-economic effects. From the perspective of public mental health, suicide among young people is a main issue to address. Therefore we need good insight in the risk factors contributing to suicidal behavior in youth. This mini review gives a short overview of the most important risk factors for late school-age children and adolescents, as established by scientific research in this domain. Key risk factors found were: mental disorders, previous suicide attempts, specific personality characteristics, genetic loading and family processes in combination with triggering psychosocial stressors, exposure to inspiring models and availability of means of committing suicide. Further unraveling and knowledge of the complex interplay of these factors is highly relevant with regard to the development of effective prevention strategy plans for youth suicide.

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“…Early childhood Conduct and impulse problems or issues may predict future increased risk of deliberate self-harm, attempted suicide and completed suicide. So appropriate early management and preventive strategy along with parent guidance counseling and education about skilled parenting are of paramount important aspect of childcare in modern era [1][2][3][4][5].…”

Who Is at Risk of Dying Young from Suicide and Sudden Violent Death? Common and Specific Risk Factors among Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults

“…However, the suicide rate among children and young adults has remained at the same level (in 2015, it was 10.9 per 100,000 young people between 13 and 24 years of age; Youth Wiki, ). These suicide figures are probably an underestimation, as suicide deaths might not be recognized, or may be misclassified as accidents or other causes of death (Bilsen, ; Stanistreet, Taylor, Jeffrey, & Gabbay, ).…”

“…Systematic reviews indicate that the strongest risk factors for youth suicide are current mental disorders and a history of suicidal behavior and psychiatric care (Beautrais, ; Bilsen, ; Cavanagh, Carson, Sharpe, & Lawrie, ; Isometsä, ). Independent of mental disorders, negative psychosocial factors, broken homes (separation, divorce, or death of parents), family psychiatric disorder or suicidal behavior, disciplinary problems, antisocial behavior, alcohol or drug misuse, previous self‐harm, and adverse life events, such as violence at home, bullying, and sexual abuse, are a common background (Beautrais, ; Bilsen, ; Cavanagh et al, ; Cavanagh, Owens, & Johnstone, ; Cheng, Chen, Chen, & Jenkins, ; Gould, Fisher, Parides, Flory, & Shaffer, ; Hawton & James, ; Heikkinen, Aro, & Lönnqvist, ; Marttunen, Aro, Henriksson, & Lönnqvist, ; Tidemalm et al, ). According to the life course model of suicidal behavior, an individual's risk is determined by accumulative exposure to a wide range of risk factors, including social disadvantage, family problems, childhood adversity, personality factors, mental disorders, and exposure to recent stressful life events (Fergusson, Woodward, & Horwood, ).…”

Mapping the PHQ-8 to EQ-5D, HUI3 and SF6D in Patients with Depression

“…It has been reported that the absenteeism costs to be the highest in Japan ($2674) while the presenteeism costs were $5524 in the United States and $5788 in Brazil [2]. Depression has been strongly linked to increased risk of suicide which is the leading cause of death among adolescents [3]. Due to increasing efforts worldwide to develop more effective treatment options and strategies for people with depression, there is a growing need for health technology assessments such as cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) and cost-utility analysis (CUA).…”