Potential lethality of suicide attempts in youth

We examined these questions in a sample of children and adolescents admitted to a psychiatric inpatient unit following a sui cide attempt. Over 70% of youth who made serious suicide attempts would have been misclassified by assessments relying on only actual lethality. Although several variables relevant to the construct of actual lethality significantly predicted potential lethality (e.g., male sex, substance use disorde r), others did not. In addition, we found that the subset of youth who would have been misclassified as low risk based on actual lethality had a disproportionately high need for healthcare resources due to future hospital admissions. The present study provides evidence to suggest that considering po tential lethality may lead to improved detection and prediction of suicide risk in youth, and in doing so supports recent calls to broaden considerations of the lethality associated with suicide attempts.
Source: European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research