Differences between children and adolescents who commit suicide and their peers: A psychological autopsy of suicide victims compared to accident victims and a community sample

Freuchen Anne, Kjelsberg Ellen, Lundervold, Grøholt, Grøholt Berit

Description

The purpose of this study was to gain knowledge about the circumstances related to suicide among children and adolescents 15 years and younger. Methods We conducted a psychological autopsy, collecting information from parents, hospital records and police reports on persons below the age of 16 who had committed suicide in Norway during a 12-year period (1993-2004) (n = 41). Those who committed suicide were compared with children and adolescents who were killed in accidents during the same time period (n = 43) and with a community sample. Results: Among the suicides 25% met the criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis and 30% had depressive symptoms at the time of death. Furthermore, 60% of the parents of the suicide victims reported the child experienced some kind of stressful conflict prior to death, whereas only 12% of the parents of the accident victims reported such conflicts. Conclusion One in four suicide victims fulfilled the criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis. The level of sub-threshold depression and of stressful conflict experienced by youths who committed suicide did not appear to differ substantially from that of their peers, and therefore did not raise sufficient concern for referral to professional help.

Sujets

• Children
• Adolescents (band)
• Suicide

Informations

• Publié par: biomed
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 17
• Langue: English

Extrait

Freuchen et al . Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health 2012, 6 :1 http://www.capmh.com/content/6/1/1

R E S E A R C H Open Access Differences between children and adolescents who commit suicide and their peers: A psychological autopsy of suicide victims compared to accident victims and a community sample Anne Freuchen 1,2* , Ellen Kjelsberg 3 , Astri J Lundervold 4 and Berit Grøholt 5

Abstract Background: The purpose of this study was to gain knowledge about the circumstances related to suicide among children and adolescents 15 years and younger. Methods: We conducted a psychological autopsy, collecting information from parents, hospital records and police reports on persons below the age of 16 who had committed suicide in Norway during a 12-year period (1993-2004) (n = 41). Those who committed suicide were compared with children and adolescents who were killed in accidents during the same time period (n = 43) and with a community sample. Results: Among the suicides 25% met the criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis and 30% had depressive symptoms at the time of death. Furthermore, 60% of the parents of the suicide victims reported the child experienced some kind of stressful conflict prior to death, whereas only 12% of the parents of the accident victims reported such conflicts. Conclusion: One in four suicide victims fulfilled the criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis. The level of sub-threshold depression and of stressful conflict experienced by youths who committed suicide did not appear to differ substantially from that of their peers, and therefore did not raise sufficient concern for referral to professional help. Keywords: Children, adolescents, suicide, fatal accidents

Background In the United Kingdom suicide rates for 10-19-year-olds The suicide rate for 10-14-year-olds in Norway has  decreased 28% between 1997 and 2003 [3]. decreased from 1991-1995 (2.6/100,000) to 2006-2009 There have been several studies of suicide in children (0.7/100,000). In comparison, the suicide rate among and adolescents, but few specifically address the young- children aged 10-14 in the United States was 1.6/ est age group [1,4-7]. Psychiatric illness has been con- 100,000 in 1994, decreasing to 1.3/100,000 in 2004, but sidered the most important risk factor for adolescent still representing the third leading cause of death in suicide [6-8]. However, some studies of suicide victims children younger than 14 [1,2]. The suicide rate for 15-  younger than 15 years indicate that this youngest group 19-year-olds in Norway has likewise decreased from may have less obvious suicidal intent and a lower fre- 12.0/100,000 in 1991-1995 to 8.7/100,000 in 2006-2009. quency of psychiatric disorders [4,6]. Brent [4] com- pared suicide victims 16 years and younger (n = 35) with a mean age of 14.6, to those older than 16 (n = * Correspondence: [e-mail] 105) in his psychological autopsy. He found mood disor- 1 Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, N-0316 der in 43% and any psychiatric disorder in 60% in the F O u sl ll o, lis N t o o r f w a a u y thorinformationisavailableattheendofthearticle youngest group. Shaffer [9], in his psychological autopsy, © 2012 Freuchen et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.