Am J Psychiatry 1986; 143:733-738
Copyright © 1986 by American Psychiatric Association
Suicidal behavior in child psychiatric inpatients and outpatients and in nonpatients
CR Pfeffer, R Plutchik, MS Mizruchi and R Lipkins
One hundred one child psychiatric outpatients were assessed using a
standard battery of measures to identify factors associated with suicidal
behavior. Data on these outpatients were compared to those for psychiatric
inpatients and nonpatients previously studied. The frequency of suicidal
behavior among the outpatients (24.8%) was less than for a comparable group
of inpatients (78.5%) but more than for a comparable group of nonpatients
(12%). Four variables--recent general psychopathology, preoccupation with
death, and recent and past depression--were significantly associated with
suicidal behavior in the three groups of children.
