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Abstract
Background: Adolescents comprise a unique and often challenging group of patients with diverse presentations to the Mental Health Services; suicidal behavior being one of them.
Aims: The main aim of this naturalistic project was to investigate demographic and clinical correlates of adolescent suicidal and self-harm events, which may be of value to decision-making in clinical practice.
Method: All adolescents (n = 149) registered and actively managed by a specialist community mental health service in South London were included in the study. Clinical information from their files was used to determine suicidality/self-harm events. The Columbia Classification Algorithm of Suicide Assessment (C-CASA) was utilised for classification purposes. Logistic regression was used to explore the effects of age, sex, diagnosis, medication, substance use (alcohol and/or cannabis) and ethnicity on suicidality/self-harming behaviors.
Results: Age, sex and use of psychotropic medication were identified to play a significant role in determining the risk of engaging in self-harming behavior. The risk was higher with increasing age and female sex. Medication seemed to have a protective effect. Reporting a 20% prevalence of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in our population, we highlight the importance of NSSI as a distinct diagnostic category.
Conclusions: Our findings have implications for risk assessment and appropriate decision-making in clinical settings. Results are translatable and relevant to other metropolitan areas.
Declaration of interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.