Can Adolescent Suicide Attempters Be Distinguished From At-Risk Adolescents?

Suicide is among the leading causes of death among adolescents and young adults. Beyond considerations of mortality is the morbidity of those young people who survive an attempt at suicide. At times this morbidity relates to anatomic or physiologic sequelae from the unsuccessful attempt; but far more often young people recover completely from the ingestion or trauma of their self-destructive episode, only to leave a residue of acute and chronic morbidity in the form of the psychological, educational, social, and financial after effects of hospitalization, absence from school, and disruption of the fabric of personal and family life. The detection of the young person at risk for even an unsuccessful attempt is therefore of some importance, and Dr Swedo and her co-authors show us in this issue of Pediatrics that such detection should be possible.