@article{ref1,
title="Demographic and clinical correlates of suicidality in adolescents attending a specialist community mental health service: a naturalistic study",
journal="Journal of mental health",
year="2015",
author="Posporelis, Sotirios and Paspali, Aspasia and Takayanagi, Yoichiro and Sawa, Akira and Banerjea, Partha and Kyriakopoulos, Marinos",
volume="24",
number="4",
pages="225-229",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Adolescents comprise a unique and often challenging group of patients with diverse presentations to the Mental Health Services; suicidal behavior being one of them. AIMS: The main aim of this naturalistic project was to investigate demographic and clinical correlates of adolescent suicidal and self-harm events, which may be of value to decision-making in clinical practice. <br><br>METHOD: All adolescents (n = 149) registered and actively managed by a specialist community mental health service in South London were included in the study. Clinical information from their files was used to determine suicidality/self-harm events. The Columbia Classification Algorithm of Suicide Assessment (C-CASA) was utilised for classification purposes. Logistic regression was used to explore the effects of age, sex, diagnosis, medication, substance use (alcohol and/or cannabis) and ethnicity on suicidality/self-harming behaviors. <br><br>RESULTS: Age, sex and use of psychotropic medication were identified to play a significant role in determining the risk of engaging in self-harming behavior. The risk was higher with increasing age and female sex. Medication seemed to have a protective effect. Reporting a 20% prevalence of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in our population, we highlight the importance of NSSI as a distinct diagnostic category. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Our findings have implications for risk assessment and appropriate decision-making in clinical settings. <br><br>RESULTS are translatable and relevant to other metropolitan areas.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0963-8237",
doi="10.3109/09638237.2015.1022249",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/09638237.2015.1022249"
}