Prevalence of suicide attempt, suicide ideation and self-harm at diagnosis in adolescents with eating disorders

Abstract

Background

Data concerning the suicide prevalence of eating disorder (ED) subtypes and predictive factors are lacking in youth. This study aimed to examine suicide attempts (SA), suicide ideation (SI) and self-harm (SH) upon diagnosis in adolescents with EDs.

Methods

The prevalence of SA, SI and SH in ED subtypes was evaluated by retrospectively assessing the Home, Education/Employment, Eating, Activities, Drugs, Sexuality, Suicidal ideation and Safety (HEEADSSS) instrument of adolescents diagnosed with an ED. Clinical predictors of SI in anorexia nervosa (AN) and atypical AN (AAN) were assessed.

Results

Among all participants (398), 41 (10.3%) reported SA, 126 (31.7%) SI and 60 (15.1%) SH. While SA did not differ statistically between ED subgroups (p = .123), they were two times more prevalent in the bulimia nervosa (BN) group (17.5%) than in the AN group (8.5%). In the BN group, SI was 2.3 times more prevalent than in the AN group (p = .001). The AN and ARFID groups exhibited substantially less SH (p = .036). Having a higher body mass index (BMI) was the only significant predictor of SI.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that adolescents with EDs are at an increased risk for suicidality, highlighting the need for close screening, particularly in those with BN, AN-BP and AN with a higher BMI.

KEY POINTS

• Adolescents with eating disorders have higher rates of suicidality than the general population.

• Bulimia nervosa had the highest risk for a suicide attempt, suicide ideation and self-harm at diagnosis.

• A higher body mass index (BMI) percentage was associated with an increased risk of suicidality in the anorexia nervosa group.

Keywords:

• Eating disorder
• suicide attempt
• suicide ideation
• self-harm
• adolescent

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.