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Suicidal Men Most Likely Had Mental Problems At Age 8

Posted on: Tuesday, 7 April 2009, 10:59 CDT

Men who have committed suicide or attempted suicide in adulthood were found to have had mental health issues as early as age 8, researchers reported Monday.

"Suicide among adolescents and young adults is a major public health concern worldwide," researchers wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry. 

"The rates of mortality [death] by suicide have been found to be high among those with medically serious suicide attempts. For effective prevention, knowledge of the key risk factors for suicide is essential."

Dr. Andre Sourander, of Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland, and colleagues studied 5,302 Finnish individuals born in 1981.

Eight years after their birth, researchers analyzed data including psychiatric conditions, performance in school and family demographics.

After collecting the data, researchers continued to follow the participants through national registers into 2005.

Of participants between the ages of 8 and 24, 40 died, including 24 males and 16 females, researchers said. A total of 54 males and females either committed suicide or attempted suicide.

"Most males who commit suicide or need hospital care after a suicide attempt have high levels of psychiatric problems at the age of 8 years," Sourander and colleagues wrote.

"The main finding of our study is that severe suicidality in adolescence and early adulthood has different childhood trajectories among males and females."

Of the 27 males who committed or attempted to commit suicide, researchers found that 78 percent tested positive for psychiatric conditions at age 8.

Researchers found 11 percent of 27 females who had committed or attempted to commit suicide tested positive for mental issues at age 8.

An estimated 877,000 people kill themselves every year, according to the World Health Organization.

"The present study shows that among males severe suicidality (i.e., completed suicide or serious, life-threatening attempts) shows a pathway of persistence throughout the life cycle, starting in early childhood. Four out of five of these males showed a high level of psychiatric symptoms at the age of 8 years," researchers said.

"The development of measures to effectively screen, detect and treat childhood disorders is a key issue in the effort to prevent suicide among males. This focus is particularly important among males with severe conduct problems because, during adolescence, they usually do not seek mental health services. Further studies are warranted to examine the efficacy of such preventive measures in childhood in the reduction of suicide rates among males."

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On the Net:

• Archives of General Psychiatry

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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