Adolescent suicidality in urban minorities and its relationship to conduct disorders, depression, and separation anxiety.
OBJECTIVE
This research investigates personality variables--aggression and disorders of conduct, depression, and separation anxiety--mediating suicidal behavior in psychiatrically hospitalized urban minority adolescents.


METHODS
Four matched groups of 26 subjects (N = 104) participated: suicidal adolescents with, and suicidal adolescents without, a conduct disorder diagnosis, nonsuicidal adolescents with a conduct disorder diagnosis, and a nonpsychiatric control group. Subjects were assessed with three dimensions from the Epigenetic Assessment Rating System (EARS), the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), and the Separation Anxiety Test (SAT).


RESULTS
A conduct disorder diagnosis was related to lower modal EARS scores. The EARS and the CDI each identified a different subset of suicidal adolescents. Adolescents with lower modal EARS scores exhibited greater reactivity to separation experiences on the SAT.


CONCLUSIONS
Relying on depressive symptomatology to identify suicidality overlooks a majority of at-risk adolescents. Structural personality variables as measured by the EARS identify and distinguish subsets of suicidal adolescents.
Feldman
M
M
Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn, NY, USA.
Wilson
A
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001010:Anxiety, Separation / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000523:psychology*; D011203:Poverty; D012920:Social Behavior Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D013405:Suicide / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology