Elevated rates of mental health concerns have been identified during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this study, we sought to evaluate whether youth reported a greater frequency ...of suicide-related behaviors during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic as compared with 2019. We hypothesized that rates of suicide-related behaviors would be elevated between the months of March and July 2020 as compared with 2019, corresponding to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Routine suicide-risk screening was completed with youth aged 11 to 21 in a pediatric emergency department. Electronic health records data for suicide-risk screens completed between January and July 2019 and January and July 2020 were evaluated. A total of 9092 completed screens were examined (mean age 14.72 years, 47.7% Hispanic and/or Latinx, 26.7% non-Hispanic white, 18.7% non-Hispanic Black).
Rates of positive suicide-risk screen results from January to July 2020 were compared with corresponding rates from January to July 2019. Results indicated a significantly higher rate of suicide ideation in March and July 2020 and higher rates of suicide attempts in February, March, April, and July 2020 as compared with the same months in 2019.
Rates of suicide ideation and attempts were higher during some months of 2020 as compared with 2019 but were not universally higher across this period. Months with significantly higher rates of suicide-related behaviors appear to correspond to times when COVID-19-related stressors and community responses were heightened, indicating that youth experienced elevated distress during these periods.
The Suicide Crisis Syndrome (SCS) describes a suicidal mental state marked by entrapment, affective disturbance, loss of cognitive control, hyperarousal, and social withdrawal that has predictive ...capacity for near-term suicidal behavior. The Suicide Crisis Inventory-2 (SCI-2), a reliable clinical tool that assesses SCS, lacks a short form for use in clinical settings which we sought to address with statistical analysis. To address this need, a community sample of 10,357 participants responded to an anonymous survey after which predictive performance for suicidal ideation (SI) and SI with preparatory behavior (SI-P) was measured using logistic regression, random forest, and gradient boosting algorithms. Four-fold cross-validation was used to split the dataset in 1,000 iterations. We compared rankings to the SCI-Short Form to inform the short form of the SCI-2. Logistic regression performed best in every analysis. The SI results were used to build the SCI-2-Short Form (SCI-2-SF) utilizing the two top ranking items from each SCS criterion. SHAP analysis of the SCI-2 resulted in meaningful rankings of its items. The SCI-2-SF, derived from these rankings, will be tested for predictive validity and utility in future studies.
Our primary objective was to examine prevalence rates of suicide behavior across 6 gender identity groups: female; male; transgender, male to female; transgender, female to male; transgender, not ...exclusively male or female; and questioning. Our secondary objective was to examine variability in the associations between key sociodemographic characteristics and suicide behavior across gender identity groups.
Data from the Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors survey (
= 120 617 adolescents; ages 11-19 years) were used to achieve our objectives. Data were collected over a 36-month period: June 2012 to May 2015. A dichotomized self-reported lifetime suicide attempts (never versus ever) measure was used. Prevalence statistics were compared across gender identity groups, as were the associations between sociodemographic characteristics (ie, age, parents' highest level of education, urbanicity, sexual orientation, and race and/or ethnicity) and suicide behavior.
Nearly 14% of adolescents reported a previous suicide attempt; disparities by gender identity in suicide attempts were found. Female to male adolescents reported the highest rate of attempted suicide (50.8%), followed by adolescents who identified as not exclusively male or female (41.8%), male to female adolescents (29.9%), questioning adolescents (27.9%), female adolescents (17.6%), and male adolescents (9.8%). Identifying as nonheterosexual exacerbated the risk for all adolescents except for those who did not exclusively identify as male or female (ie, nonbinary). For transgender adolescents, no other sociodemographic characteristic was associated with suicide attempts.
Suicide prevention efforts can be enhanced by attending to variability within transgender populations, particularly the heightened risk for female to male and nonbinary transgender adolescents.
Suicide in elementary school-aged children is not well studied, despite a recent increase in the suicide rate among US black children. The objectives of this study were to describe characteristics ...and precipitating circumstances of suicide in elementary school-aged children relative to early adolescent decedents and identify potential within-group racial differences.
We analyzed National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) surveillance data capturing suicide deaths from 2003 to 2012 for 17 US states. Participants included all suicide decedents aged 5 to 14 years (N = 693). Age group comparisons (5-11 years and 12-14 years) were conducted by using the χ
test or Fisher's exact test, as appropriate.
Compared with early adolescents who died by suicide, children who died by suicide were more commonly male, black, died by hanging/strangulation/suffocation, and died at home. Children who died by suicide more often experienced relationship problems with family members/friends (60.3% vs 46.0%; P = .02) and less often experienced boyfriend/girlfriend problems (0% vs 16.0%; P < .001) or left a suicide note (7.7% vs 30.2%; P < .001). Among suicide decedents with known mental health problems (n = 210), childhood decedents more often experienced attention-deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (59.3% vs 29.0%; P = .002) and less often experienced depression/dysthymia (33.3% vs 65.6%; P = .001) compared with early adolescent decedents.
These findings raise questions about impulsive responding to psychosocial adversity in younger suicide decedents, and they suggest a need for both common and developmentally-specific suicide prevention strategies during the elementary school-aged and early adolescent years. Further research should investigate factors associated with the recent increase in suicide rates among black children.
Family processes are a risk factor for suicide but few studies target this domain. We evaluated the effectiveness of a family intervention, the Resourceful Adolescent Parent Program (RAP-P) in ...reducing adolescent suicidal behavior and associated psychiatric symptoms.
A preliminary randomized controlled trial compared RAP-P plus Routine Care (RC) to RC only, in an outpatient psychiatric clinic for N = 48 suicidal adolescents and their parents. Key outcome measures of adolescent suicidality, psychiatric disability, and family functioning were completed at pre-treatment, 3-month, and 6-month follow-up.
RAP-P was associated with high recruitment and retention, greater improvement in family functioning, and greater reductions in adolescents' suicidal behavior and psychiatric disability, compared to RC alone. Benefits were maintained at follow-up with a strong overall effect size. Changes in adolescent's suicidality were largely mediated by changes in family functioning.
The study provides preliminary evidence for the use of family-focused treatments for adolescent suicidal behavior in outpatient settings. Clinical trial registration information-Family intervention for adolescents with suicidal behaviour: A randomized controlled trial and mediation analysis; http://anzctr.org/; ACTRN12613000668707.
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