[Disturbed eating behavior and suicide thoughts among adolescents: results of a national telephone survey ]

The objective of this paper is to study the relation between the disturbed eating behaviours and the suicidal thoughts. In the Young People Health Barometer 97/98, 13.3% of the adolescents interviewed stated that they have "quite often" or "very often" overeaten and experienced difficulty in stopping themselves in the last 12 months. 1.0% have voluntarily vomited, 4.8% are afraid of starting to eat for fear of not being able to stop themselves, 5.6% eat in secret. Moreover, 10.3% say that they have had thoughts about suicide in the last 12 months. Percentage of suicidal thoughts increases notably with the number of declared disturbed eating behaviours. The adjusted odd ratio on sex and age for having had thoughts about suicide, comparing those declaring at least one of these eating behaviours to those declaring none of these behaviours, is 2.9.