"Suicide" as Seen in Poison Control Centers

Of 1,103 cases of poisoning, ages 6 to 18, admitted to 50 poison control centers during 1 year, 13% were considered unintentional, 13% "trips," 26% suicide attempts, and 48% suicide gestures or affect reactions. The youngest age group, 6 to 10, is 63% male, 40% Negro, and about one-half give a history of precipitating stress or current or prior referral for behavior problems. The abrupt increase in self-poisoning in girls at age 12 peaks at age 16, while male paisonings continue to increase with age. An admittedly immature concept of death was retained by 16% of the 17 to 18-year-olds. In the five deaths (mortality 1: 220 hospitalized self-poisonings), lethality of intent was presumed low with death the result of a toxicologic mishap. The estimate of about 115,000 self-poisonings annually in the United States, ages 6 to 18, defines a mental health problem of the first magnitude, but open to epidemiologic analysis by relatively simple techniques.