Adolescent suicide: an overview

Etiological theories of suicide are reviewed from epidemiological, individual (both biological and psychological), and psychosocial perspectives. Cohort and population-model approaches as explanations for the two- to three-fold increase in completed suicide rates observed in adolescents and young adults over the past 25 years are presented. The results of the authors' study of suicides in adolescents and young adults in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, to test these hypotheses are summarized. This study revealed marked cohort differences in suicide rates and provided partial support for the "population-model" approach. Differences between suicide rates in adolescents and other age groups are discussed, as are data from some minority groups. The role of depression in adolescents and various studies of diagnostic approaches (e.g., structured diagnostic assessments, biological markers, clues during intensive psychotherapy or psychoanalysis, studies of high-risk diagnostic groups) are reviewed. Lastly, treatment employing individual, family, and group approaches to classical psychoanalytic or cognitive psychotherapy as well as the role of pharmacological treatments are considered.