Suicidabilidad en adolescentes, una comparación con población adulta

Abstract

IntroductionSuicide is the third leading cause of violent death in Colombian adolescents. In the last four decades of the twentieth century adolescent suicide rates increased in Colombia and in the world. There are few studies comparing the characteristics of suicidal adolescent patients in Latin America. ObjectiveTo determine the differences between suicidal adolescents and adults seen at the mental health services of a private clinic in Bucaramanga, Colombia. MethodsThe sample consisted of all consecutive suicidal patients attending a clinic for psychiatric care. They all underwent a semistructured interview asking about demographic characteristics and major risk and protective factors for suicide. A logistic regression analysis was performed with adolescence as the dependent variable adjusted for confounding variables. ResultsWe interviewed 448 adults and 85 patients under 18. Adolescents had a mean age of 15.2±1.5 and adults 35.9 ± 13.6 years. Adolescents were more often female, had more suicide attempts (OR=3.64; 95%CI: 2.13-6.20), but less severe mental disorders (OR=0.42; 0.25-0.71). ConclusionsColombian suicidal adolescents were more often female, with the highest percentage of suicide attempts, and with less severe mental health problems than adults.