Correlates of suicide risk in adolescent inpatients who report a history of childhood abuse

The study objective was to examine correlates of suicide risk in psychiatri cally hospitalized adolescents with a reported history of childhood abuse. Predictors of suicide risk were examined in 74 subjects who reported a hist ory of childhood abuse and 53 depressed subjects who did not report a histo ry of childhood abuse. Subjects completed a battery of psychometrically wel l-established self-report instruments to assess childhood abuse, suicide ri sk, and internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Correlational anal yses showed that higher levels of depression, self-criticism, and hopelessn ess were significantly associated with suicide risk in both study groups an d violence was significantly associated with suicide risk in the childhood abuse group. For the childhood abuse group, multiple regression analyses wi th seven predictor variables accounted for 54% of the variance in suicide r isk: depression and alcohol problems made significant independent contribut ions, while violence and self-criticism were independent predictors at the trend level. For the depressed/nonabused group, multiple regression analyse s with the seven predictor variables accounted for 60% of the variance in s uicide risk; depression, hopelessness, and self-criticism were independent predictors. Our findings suggest that both internalizing (i.e., depression or self-criticism) and externalizing (i.e., violence or alcohol) factors pr edict suicide risk in adolescent inpatients who report childhood abuse, Thi s profile appears different from the more internalizing pattern (i.e., depr ession, self-criticism, and hopelessness) observed for the depressed adoles cent inpatients who reported no history of childhood abuse. Copyright (C) 1 999 by W.B. Saunders Company.