Clinical characteristics of adolescent psychiatric inpatients who have attempted suicide

The clinical characteristics of 191 adolescent inpatients were examined in relation to frequency of previous suicide attempts, predictors of suicide attempts prior to hospitalization, and lifetime suicide attempts. Overall, more than 50% of the adolescent inpatients had attempted suicide during their lifetime, and of these more than half (58%) had made more than one attempt. Approximately half of the suicide attempters had made a serious attempt prior to hospitalization. Girls reported higher levels of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation than boys, in addition to having attempted suicide prior to hospitalization (33%) or during lifetime (37%) more often than the boys (13% and 26%, respectively). Although about two thirds of the adolescent inpatients reported that they had received some help after a suicide attempt, approximately half of the repeaters had not received any help. The results of multivariate analyses showed that suicide attempts made prior to hospitalization were predicted by depressive symptom levels and a clinical diagnosis of depressive disorder, whereas frequency of lifetime suicide attempts was predicted by suicidal ideation levels and having a family member or a friend who had attempted (or committed) suicide. The high prevalence of lifetime and repeated suicide attempts among the psychiatric inpatients underscores the importance of identifying risk factors in the clinical evaluation of adolescent suicide attempters.