NCJ Number
191144
Journal
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Volume: 40 Issue: 11 Dated: November 2001 Pages: 1300-1307
Date Published
November 2001
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This study examined suicide attempts among 3,416 female adolescent twins in Missouri in a sample that was population based as well as epidemiologically and genetically informative.
Abstract
The data came from telephone interviews conducted between 1995 and 2000 with twins whose average age was 15.5 years at the time of assessment. The interview instrument was a telephone version of the Child Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism and included a detailed section on suicidal behavior. Results revealed that 4.2 percent of the participants reported at least 1 suicide attempt. The first suicide attempts took place at an average age of 13.6 and all took place before age 18. The factors most associated with a suicide attempt history included major depressive disorder, alcohol dependence, childhood physical abuse, social phobia, conduct disorder, and Black ethnicity. The risk of suicide attempt was familial in that genetic and shared environmental influences together accounted for 35-75 percent of the variance in risk. The twin/co-twin suicide attempt odds ratio was 5.6 for monozygotic twins and 4.0 for dizygotic twins after controlling for other psychiatric risk factors. The analysis concluded that in women, the predisposition to attempt suicide seems usually to manifest itself first during adolescence. In addition, youth suicide attempts are familial and possibly influenced by genetic factors, even when controlling for other psychopathology. Tables, figure, and 50 references (Author abstract modified)