SUICIDE ATTEMPTS IN ADOLESCENCE

Sabbath's hypothesis states that the suicidal adolescent is an expendable child. A derivative of this formulation was tested, that is that higher lethality would be found in expendable children. Correlates of lethality, referral failure and repeated attempts were examined for 52 attempters through chart review, telephone interviews and agency contacts. The results indicate that adolescents identified as expendable (40 percent of the sample) did not make more lethal attempts. Sex, age and ethnicity were not correlated with lethality, except that younger black adolescents made significantly more lethal attempts. Females made as lethal attempts as males. Analyses of referral failure indicated that precipitating events, depressive symptoms, and repeated attempts were not associated with noncompliance. However, repeat attempters were significantly more difficult to follow-up. Compliance with outpatient therapy was 45%. The implications of these findings for follow-up/outreach are discussed.