Youth Suicide Attempts Often Start Early in Life

Forty percent of youth who attempt suicide make their first attempt even before they reach high school, a study headed by James Mazza of the University of Washington and published in the November Journal of Adolescent Health has found. The researchers also found that suicide attempts during childhood and adolescence were linked to higher scores on measures of depression at the time of the attempts.

For an in-depth exploration of the link between depression and suicide in youngsters, see the American Psychiatric Publishing book The Many Faces of Depression in Children and Adolescents. It reviews not just what is known about the causes of depression and suicide in youth, but discusses state-of-the-art pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy for youth with depression who are at greater suicide risk. 

(Image: Pojoslaw/Shutterstock.com)