Youth suicide and hospital-presenting suicide attempts: Examination of risk factors for multiple suicide attempts in adolescence

Abstract

Background: The suicide rate among adolescents around the world has increased rapidly. There are many risk factors for attempting suicide, but not all have been clarified yet. Therefore, it is very important to identify risk factors. This study evaluated adolescents with a history of suicide attempts and their association with chronic diseases. Besides, to check whether they attempted suicide multiple times. Other clinical features related to multiple suicide attempts were investigated. Method: This study used a multicentre, retrospective cross-sectional design; 253 adolescents admitted to emergency departments in 2019 for suicide attempts were evaluated. Results: Adolescents with chronic disease were at greater risk for both single and multiple suicide attempts and patients had a 6.14 times higher risk of multiple attempts ( p = .013). The likelihood of multiple attempts did not differ according to the presence of somatic or psychiatric disease. Multiple attempters were more likely to poison themselves with their therapeutic drugs ( p = .002). Conclusion: When adolescents with a chronic disease present to the emergency services after a single suicide attempt using their therapeutic drugs, families should be informed regarding the potential for further attempts.

Suicide Risk Screening in Primary Care

“…Individuals describing their health status as poor registered significantly higher total SPS and sub-dimension scores than those describing it as moderate or good. In support of these findings, one study retrospectively investigating suicide attempts among adolescents with chronic disease showed that individuals with chronic diseases were at a greater risk of both single and multiple attempts at suicide, and had a 6.14-fold greater risk of multiple attempts than healthy individuals [28].…”

“…Analysis of deaths from suicide in 2019 in the province where this research was conducted showed that gender rates were very similar to one another (male 22, female 18) [5]. Studies investigating the relationship between suicide and gender report that males are at greater risk [27,28]. However, there are also studies reporting more attempted suicides among women.…”

Trends and prevalence of suicide 2017–2021 and its association with COVID-19: Interrupted time series analysis of a national sample of college students in the United States

“…At the peripandemic assessment, we performed sample-weighted multivariable logistic regression for each outcome variable (i.e., SI, SP, SA) to compute adjusted odds ratios (AOR) and 95% CIs, controlling for covariates. Based on previous studies ( Choi et al, 2021 ; DeVylder et al, 2021 ; Greydanus et al, 2010 ; Oh et al, 2022 ; Tobore, 2019 ; Tubas et al, 2022 ), covariates included demographic variables (i.e., age, sex, gender, race/ethnicity, disability status, international, relationship, residence) and plausible risk factors (i.e., smoking and vaping status, chronic diseases). A 2-sided p < .05 was considered statistically significant.…”