Correlates of the Medical Lethality of Suicide Attempts in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

The relationship between the medical lethality of suicidal behavior and demographic, psychiatric, social, and familial/environmental variables was examined in chart review of a consecutive series of youthful suicide attempters presenting in a Children's Hospital over a 5-year period. Correlates of the lethality of suicidal behavior included male sex, diagnoses of affective disorder and substance abuse, high suicidal intent, and the ingestion of a psychotropic agent. Patients who made medically lethal attempts appeared to have characteristics which converge with those who have completed suicide. The availability of a lethal agent may be the most significant determinant of the lethality of impulsive attempts, whereas suicidal intent and severity of psychopathology may make the most important contributions to the lethality of attempts by hopeless, dysphoric individuals. The implications of these findings for the prediction and prevention of suicide in children and adolescents are discussed.