The specificity of psychological characteristics of adolescent suicide attempters

Using a semistructured interview, psychological characteristics were gathered from three groups of adolescents: 48 suicide attempters, 66 depressed, and 43 nondepressed adolescents who never attempted suicide. Various characteristics reported in literature discriminated the attempters from the normal group but not from the depressed group. These characteristics probably are not specific for adolescent suicide attempters. Even when a discriminant analysis was applied, the suicide attempters showed many similarities with the depressed adolescents, although both these groups could be separated from the normal group. Using follow-up data, the quadrants created by the axes appeared to have more implications for prevention than for the a priori group membership.