Suicide among children and adolescents in a province of Turkey.
Despite well-documented increases in completed suicides among children, accurate knowledge of the characteristics of these suicides is very limited. The aim of this study was to investigate general characteristics of suicide among children and adolescents in the province of Istanbul and to evaluate obtained results in the light of the literature. Data were collected from autopsy records of the Morgue Department of Institute of Forensic Medicine, Istanbul. General characteristics of completed suicides among children and adolescents between 2001 and 2005 were retrospectively reviewed. The study included 176 suicides aged 9-19 years. The overwhelming majority of the suicides (92%) were aged 15-19 years. More than half of the suicides (60%) were male. The most frequent means of suicide was hanging (55%) followed by firearms (20%) and jump or descent from height (15%).
Uzun
Ibrahim
I
Forensic Medicine Specialist, Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice, Istanbul, Turkey. atkdr_ibrahim@yahoo.com
Karayel
Ferah Anik
FA
Akyildiz
Elif Ulker
EU
Turan
Arzu Akcay
AA
Toprak
Sadik
S
Arpak
Baha Berk
BB
D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D001237:Asphyxia / Q000401:mortality; D002056:Burns / Q000401:mortality; D002424:Caustics / Q000506:poisoning; D002648:Child; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D008722:Methods; D019838:Neck Injuries / Q000401:mortality; D011041:Poisoning / Q000401:mortality; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology; D014948:Wounds, Gunshot / Q000401:mortality; D055815:Young Adult
D002424:Caustics