Teenage suicides: Study advocates greater family support

Teenage suicide is often perceived as the result of rejection of family, significant others and of society. Families affected by teenage suicide often look back for warning signs and clues in order to make sense of the tragedy. With the recent teenage suicides in Bridgend, South Wales, there have been demands for improved suicide prevention strategies. However little attention is paid to those families who have already lost their teenage sons or daughters.

Research published in the open access journal, BMC Psychiatry, has highlighted a key role for general practitioners in organising long-term, individually formulated support schemes for those affected.

A research team from Umeå University has already identified the phenomenon of cluster suicides where one suicide appears to have a ‘contagious’ effect triggering further suicidal activities and even suicide among other teenagers in a community. General practitioners were identified as having a key role in providing support for the family and close contacts of victims to potentially prevent further suicides.

Following this initial study, the same group has attempted to investigate in more depth the aftermath of suicide on families.

Based on data from a large project on unnatural teenage deaths in northern Sweden (1981-2000), the team led by Per Lindqvist retrospectively analysed 10 cases. The researchers examined the qualitative aspects of loosing a teenage family member due to suicide, including post-suicidal reactions, impacts on daily living, and the families’ need for support after the event.

At the time of the research, the participants were still struggling to explain why the suicide had occurred. Although most had returned to an ostensibly normal life, they were still profoundly affected by their loss. They highlighted that post-suicide support was often badly timed and insufficient, especially for younger siblings and said they would welcome earlier assistance from friends, family and the clergy.

Lindqvist comments “There is a need for better understanding and treatment schemes for families who have lost a teenage family member in suicide, and especially for the younger siblings who often are forgotten”.

The general practitioner was again identified as a key person in organising a support strategy for the families of suicide victims. This support would not only prevent emotional contagion, but would actively help families in the aftermath of a teenage suicide.

Source: BioMed Central

Related stories:

Judge tentatively upholds charges in ‘cyber-bullying' case
A federal judge handed a partial victory Thursday to prosecutors seeking to put a St. Louis-area woman on trial regarding online harassment of a teenage neighbor who later killed herself.
Defense will try to derail cyber-bullying case
A federal judge in Los Angeles could decide Thursday whether to allow use of an untested legal theory to prosecute a woman accused of helping cyber-bully a St. Louis area teen who killed herself.
Study: Teen suicide spike was no fluke
A troubling study in the September 3rd Journal of the American Medical Association raises new concerns about kids committing suicide in this country. After a one year spike in the number of suicides, doctors were hoping to see more normal numbers in the latest study, but they didn't. The number of kids committing suicide in the U.S. remains higher than expected, and that has doctors and parents looking for answers.
Family therapy helps relieve depression symptoms in bipolar teens
Family-focused therapy, when combined with medication, appears effective in stabilizing symptoms of depression among teens with bipolar disorder, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
Suicide risks studied in drugs for physical ills
(AP) -- Cody Miller was a high school football player who was allergic to ragweed. Douglas Briggs was a doctor coping with pain from an old back injury. Both are now dead, hanging victims driven to suicide, their families believe, when drugs prescribed to relieve physical symptoms upset their mental and emotional balance. Federal drug regulators are investigating to see if the families could be right.
FDA approves first drug for Huntington's disease
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved tetrabenazine, the first drug approved for use in the United States to treat Huntington's disease, a fatal, inherited neurodegenerative disorder for which there is no cure. The action comes about eight months after an advisory panel unanimously voted to advise FDA to make the medication available to treat the disease.
Post-partum suicide attempt risks studied
Although maternal suicide after giving birth is a relatively rare occurrence, suicide attempts often have long-lasting effects on the family and the infant. In a study published in the August 2008 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, researchers compared two populations of mothers and found that a history of psychiatric disorders or substance abuse was a strong predictor of post-partum suicide attempts.
Key to virulence protein entry into host cells discovered
Researchers from the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech have identified the region of a large family of virulence proteins in oomycete plant pathogens that enables the proteins to enter the cells of their hosts. The protein region contains the amino acid sequence motifs RXLR and dEER and has the ability to carry the virulence proteins across the membrane surrounding plant cells without any additional machinery from the pathogen.

News discussion:

Medicine & Health news