Suicides and Suicide attempts among Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatients in Iran

Introduction: Suicidal behavior is seen in the context of a variety of mental disorders and while many believe that, in general, first episode psychosis is a particularly high-risk period for suicide, no general agreement regarding higher prevalence of suicide in first episode psychosis is achievable. In the present study, suicides and suicide attempts among child and adolescent psychiatric in-patients has been evaluated to assess the general profile of suicidal behavior among native psychiatric inpatients.

Methods: All child and adolescent psychiatric inpatients with suicidal behavior (successful suicide and attempted suicide, in total), during the last five years (2013-2018), had been included in the present investigation.

Results: Among 748 child and adolescent psychiatric patients hospitalized in razi psychiatric hospital during a sixty months’ period, 14 suicide attempts, without any successful suicide, had been recorded by the safety board of hospital. The most frequent mental illness was bipolar I disorder (50%), followed by conduct disorder (42.85%), and substance abuse disorder (7.14%), with no significant difference among them. In addition, no significant difference was evident between the first admission and recurrent admission inpatients, totally and separately.

Conclusion: While in the present study the suicidal behavior was non-significantly more evident in bipolar disorder in comparison with other psychiatric disorders, no significant difference was evident between first admission and recurrent admission child and adolescent psychiatric inpatients.

Keywords: Child and adolescent; Psychiatric disorders; Suicide; Suicide attempt; First admission; Recurrent admission; Bipolar disorder; Conduct disorder; Substance abuse disorder