Suicidal teens show lasting mental effects

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teenagers who contemplate suicide are likely to have emotional and behavioral problems that last throughout young adulthood, new study findings suggest.

The results, say the study authors, show that teens' suicidal thoughts need to be addressed not only because of the immediate danger, but also for their future well-being.

The study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, found that 15-year-olds who thought about suicide were more likely than other teens to become 30-year-olds with emotional, social and behavioral difficulties.

At age 30, they were twice as likely as their peers to have a psychiatric disorder such as anxiety or depression, and they were far more likely to have contemplated or attempted suicide in recent years.

Beyond overt psychiatric disorders, suicidal teens were also more likely to develop emotional and behavioral problems that pervaded their everyday lives.

Their families more often pointed to "problem behaviors" that persisted into adulthood -- such as episodes of aggression or withdrawal from family and friends. Also, they generally had lower self-esteem and more relationship problems than their peers at age 30.

These findings point to "enduring links" between suicidal thoughts in adolescence and poorer mental health years later, write the researchers, led by Dr. Helen Z. Reinherz of the Simmons College School of Social Work in Boston.

The findings are based on interviews with 346 30-year-olds who had been taking part in a study of mental health and development since they were 5 years old. At age 15, 22 percent had admitted to sometimes contemplating suicide.

The problem of teen suicide has garnered much attention in recent years, with the finding that antidepressants may increase the risk, Reinherz and her colleagues note. Much less attention, they add, has gone toward the long-term consequences of teenagers' suicidal thoughts.

"These findings," the researchers write, "underscore the need for identification and treatment of adolescent suicidal ideation in order to alleviate immediate distress and forestall future negative consequences."

SOURCE: American Journal of Psychiatry, July 2006.