Age- and sex-related risk factors for adolescent suicide

Objective: To examine the impact of age and sex on adolescent suicide risk. Method: A standard psychological autopsy protocol was used to compare 140 suicide victims with 131 community controls. The risk factors for older (gr eater than or equal to 16 years) and younger, and for male and female suici de were compared. Results: Mood disorders, parental psychopathology, lifeti me history of abuse, availability of a gun, and past suicide attempt convey ed significant risk for suicide across all 4 demographic groups. Psychopath ology, particularly substance abuse (alone and comorbid with mood disorder) , was more common and conveyed a much higher risk for suicide in the older versus younger adolescents. Younger suicide victims showed lower suicidal i ntent. Males chose more irreversible methods, and conduct disorder was both more prevalent and a more significant risk factor in males. Conclusions: T he increased rate of suicide in older versus younger adolescents is due in part to greater prevalence of psychopathology, namely substance abuse, and greater suicidal intent in the older population. The increased rate in male s is less easily explained, but it may stem from method choice and the grea ter prevalence of and risk conveyed by conduct disorder in males.