TY - JOUR PY - 2016// TI - Paediatric suicide in the USA: analysis of the National Child Death Case Reporting System JO - Injury prevention A1 - Trigylidas, Theodore E. A1 - Reynolds, Eliza M. A1 - Teshome, Getachew A1 - Dykstra, Heather K. A1 - Lichenstein, Richard SP - 268 EP - 273 VL - 22 IS - 4 N2 - IMPORTANCE: Suicide is a leading cause of death among youths. The relationship between mental health, psychosocial factors and youth suicidality needs further analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To describe paediatric suicide in the USA and the impact of mental health and substance abuse using the National Child Death Review Case Reporting System (CDR-CRS). To identify psychosocial correlates contributing to suicide and whether these factors are more common among individuals with history of mental illness or substance abuse.

DESIGN: Deidentified data (CDR-CRS) from 2004 to 2012 was obtained from 29 participating states. Demographic data and psychosocial correlates, including age, gender, cause of death, history of mental illness and/or substance abuse, school concerns, previous suicide attempts and family history of suicide, were collected.

RESULTS: A total of 2850 suicides were identified. Mean age was 15.6±1.9 years; (range 7-21 years) 73.6% male and 65.1% Caucasian. The leading causes of death were asphyxia (50.2%) and weapon/firearm (36.5%). Among all subjects, 25.5% had history of mental illness and 19.0% had history of substance abuse. 60.0% had no report of mental illness or substance abuse. Subjects with both mental illness and substance abuse were more likely to have school concerns (OR=4.1 (p<0.001)), previous suicide attempts (OR=4.2 (p<0.001)) and a family history of suicide (OR=3.2 (p<0.001)) compared with subjects without those characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS: Most suicide records in the CDR-CRS had no indication of mental illness or substance abuse. The youth with mental-illness/substance-abuse issues were more likely to have other compounding psychosocial correlates that may be warning signs of suicide.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1353-8047 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2015-041796 ID - ref1 ER -