Suicide Attempts in a Population Pregnant as Teen-Agers

Abstract

Attention is directed to an apparently high-risk of attempted or threatened suicide in a cohort of young women who were pregnant before age 18. Factors related to suicide attempts are discussed and stress is placed on the need for preventive action, including early detection and intensive treatment of long duration for suicide-prone girls and for those who threaten or attempt suicide.

One hundred pregnant adolescents, treatment approaches in a university hospital.

“…Thus the girls may be drawn consciously or unconsciously to forget her daily pill, to allow her supply to run out, or to resist using money for this. 18,19 Other staff feel the need of these semi-deprived girls and the general dreariness of their life permits them to feel a certain satisfaction in the attention and the excitement of the pregnancy and to enjoy their ability to have a baby of their own.…”

Suicide in Pregnancy: The Hedda Gabler Syndrome

“…All of ten post-partum suicides reported by Barno (1967) were accomplished by violent means. Violent means are used in less than half of all female suicides (Gabrielson et al, 1970). The presence of one homicide-suicide in the prepartum cases blends with the pattern seen in post-partum suicide.…”

“…Infanticide usually (in about 60 percent of cases) occurs in association with suicidal ideation; in a study (Rodenburg, 1971) of 166 women convicted of infanticide, 59 (36 percent) had actually attempted suicide at the time of infanticide. Postpartum child abuse may be still another related phenomenon; a case of postpartum suicide attempt with infant battering has been reported (Gabrielson et al, 1970).…”

A Social "Action" Program Directed to Single Pregnant Girls and Adolescent Parents

“…In many cases, young parents have no education, no job, no social support system, severe financial limitations, and experience major structural obstacles in any attempt to escape the cycle of poverty. Perhaps one can begin to explain why nine percent of all teenage mothers attempt suicide (Gabrielson, 1970), a rate seven times the national percentage for teenage girls without children.…”