Suicide attempts among children and adolescents

Introduction: Suicide is the second largest cause of mortality in the 10-24 age group. Investigation of suicide attempts among children and adolescents are rare in Serbia. Objective: The aim of this study is to analyze suicide attempts of children and adolescents who were hospitalized during the twelve-year period (2003-2014.) in the Clinic of Neurology and Psychiatry for Children and Youth in Belgrade. Method: We retrospectively analyzed medical records of 130 patients. The diagnosis was made according to the ICD 10 criteria. Patients data (gender, age, number of attempts, suicide attempt method, time of year, prior psychiatric diagnosis, family characteristics) were analyzed using standard statistical methods (Student's t-test and Chi Square test). Results: Gender distribution showed 77.7 % female and 22.3 % male. The mean age was 15.28 years (SD-1.834). The youngest child who attempted suicide was 9. The most common method of attempting suicide was intentional selfpoisoning by drugs (66.2 %), followed by wrist cutting (11.5 %) and hanging (10.8 %). In terms of the gender distribution, statistically significant difference was found in the method of attempting suicide (x2= 12.238; df=4; p=0.016). The highest suicide rate was in 2013 with 18 attempts, and the lowest was in 2006 with 6 attempts. Most suicide attempts took place in the winter and also in June. 48 patients (36.9%) who attempted suicide had previous psychiatric diagnoses. 14 patients (10.8 %) have at least one member of immediate family who attempted or committed suicide. Conclusion: We confirmed previous results from the literature about gender prevalence and gender differences in method of suicide attempts. Early identification of youth at high risk for suicide behavior is very important, as well as developing specific preventive programs.