Gap closing between young children, adolescents
Dr. Lewis said he was surprised by the young age of 10-13 among the boys in the highest-risk category. That speaks to the differences from standard thinking this paper points out, he said. “Generally, we think about adolescents as being at the highest risk of suicide death and suicidal behavior,” he said.
Dr. Lewis said it’s important to note that the authors acknowledge these profiles are not static. He gave an example that the rate of suicide deaths among females is rising.
“As things like that change, some of these risk profiles will change as well.”
Dr. Lewis said the profiles may be especially helpful to medical providers in emergency departments or those making discharge decisions who don’t have an ongoing relationship with a patient.
The information could also help educators and lay people, “think about suicide in the youth population in ways we don’t normally think about it,” Dr. Lewis said.
Covariates considered for profiles were determined through expert consensus between pediatric psychiatrists, general pediatricians, pediatric hospitalists, pediatric complex care physicians, and pediatric pharmacoepidemiologists.
Age was broken into three groups: 5-9 years, 10-13 years, and 14-17 years based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting and previous studies that showed significant increases in suicide rates in these age-based subgroups.
Results are preliminary
The authors note that the profiles were developed using data from 1,000 children with neuropsychiatric complaints at two academic children’s hospitals and are thus preliminary.
“Future studies should focus on validating these risk profiles in a larger, more heterogeneous population of children and adolescents,” the authors write.
They also acknowledge that they were not able to include factors such as medication use, previous suicidal behavior, and family and social support, which also factor into risk.
The study authors and Dr. Lewis report no relevant financial relationships.