Suicidal behavior and depressive disorders in adolescents and young adults

This paper analyzes and explains trends in mortality by suicide over the period 1960-1986 for the countries that report mortality data to the World Health Organization and is divided in two parts. In the first part it is shown that the rise in overall rates in the majority of countries is to a large extent due to the increase in suicide among adolescents and young adults. For a subsample of 19 European countries the correlation between changes on a number of social indicators and changes in suicide rate is reported. Based on the results a social profile of suicide-prone communities is drawn, which suggests that many developing countries will witness a sharp rise in self-destructive behaviors in the near future. In the second part the relationship between depressive disorders, attempted suicide and suicide is investigated both by review of the literature as well as by a study on the association between national suicide and attempted suicide rates and depressive mood disturbance (population sample survey data) in one particular country (The Netherlands). The results indicate that socioeconomic correlates of (changes in) suicide rates and attempted suicide rates largely coincide and that a hierarchical response model of suicidal behavior provides a satisfactory explanation of the relationships between social disruption or anomie, depressive disturbance, attempted suicide and suicide.