Factors Predicting Successful Suicide Among Adolescents:Multiple Attempts And Index Methods, A Retrospective Cohort Study
Abstract Background: While suicide among adolescents has emerged as a significant social problem, few studies have examined the relationship between changes in suicide methods and suicide success following multiple attempts. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between changing suicide methods and successful suicide among adolescents after repeated attempts.Methods: This retrospective study analyzed the psychiatric history of patients (n=227) between 10 and 18 years of age who visited a pediatric emergency center between January 2007 and February 2021 for suicide attempts. Results: Out of a total of 227 patients, 80 achieved successful suicide attempts, including emergency hospitalization or death. A significant association was observed between successful suicide in patients with multiple attempts who chose drug intoxication (DI) as the index method (p=0.010) and patients with multiple attempts who chose DI as a suicide method (p=0.001). No statistically significant outcomes for changing methods and number of suicide attempts were evident.Conclusions: This study emphasizes the importance of identifying index methods as well as suicide methods among adolescent patients with multiple suicide attempts. This study identified predictors affecting the successful suicide of adolescents. Identifying the index method and the changed method among adolescent patients with multiple suicide attempts are significant predictors of successful suicide. Identifying the index method and changed method of suicide is expected to help in interviewing adolescents with multiple suicide attempts.