In a review of pediatric hospital emergency room admissions over 7
years, the authors found 505 children and adolescents who had attempted
suicide. There were three times as many girls as boys, and the boys were
significantly younger. Features that distinguished them from matched
controls were religion, living situation, substance abuse, current
psychiatric illness, prior psychotherapy, and current medical illness.
Their families had more psychiatric illness (primarily drug or alcohol
abuse), suicide, paternal unemployment, and paternal and maternal absence
than the controls' families. The suicide attempts usually occurred in the
winter, after school or in the evening, at home with someone nearby, and by
drug overdose.Abstract Teaser