Affective and character pathology of suicidal adolescent and young adult inpatients

Psychiatric diagnoses and severity of suicide attempts were compared between adolescents (14-19 years) and young adults (20-35 years) with depressed mood hospitalized following a suicide attempt. The depressive disorders manifested by the two age groups, determined by semi-structured interview, were basically the same. The degree of lethality and frequency of suicide attempts were approximately equal in the two groups. Adolescents in this investigation who manifested the same behaviors as older patients were diagnosable by the same criteria.