Adolescent suicide in New York City: plenty of room for new research
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Debora Ganz
Abstract
The act of adolescent suicide continues to threaten adolescent populations in New York City (NYC). Consistent positive correlations have been found between a plethora of risk factors present in NYC adolescent populations and suicidal ideations and behaviors. Psychiatric conditions that may contribute to the rate of adolescent suicide in NYC include depression, bipolar disorder, substance abuse and schizophrenia. Unique factors that have been found to contribute to increased rates of completed suicides in NYC include the phenomena of railway suicides and suicide tourism. Homelessness and income inequality in NYC have also been consistently correlated with increased suicidality; with one study finding suicide attempts reported by a significant percentage of new admissions to homeless shelters. Adolescent populations in NYC that have been identified as particularly vulnerable to suicidality include runaway youth, homosexual youth, victimized adolescents and adolescents with a recent history of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Longitudinal studies in NYC have found that physical and sexual abuse is highly predictive of adolescent suicidality, with variations by ethnic group. Currently, there is a disturbing lack of sufficient research on adolescent suicide in NYC, specifically regarding causal factors, the effects of television on suicide, comorbid suicidality and drug abuse, and cultural factors contributing to suicide. This dearth of literature may be related to the ethical problems inherent in suicide research, self reports and/or post mortem analyses.
©2012 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Masthead
- Editorial
- Dean Ornish should receive the Nobel prize in medicine
- Review Articles
- Adolescent suicide in New York City: plenty of room for new research
- Consequences of prenatal substance use
- The need for evidence-based, non-drug medicine
- Teaching medical professionals and trainees about adolescent suicide prevention: five key problems
- Original Articles
- Sexual violence and associated factors among women in HIV discordant and concordant relationships in Uganda
- Educational impact of peer-intervention on the knowledge and attitudes about HIV/AIDS in adolescents in Panama
- Tobacco brand preference among Mexican adolescents
- Spirituality and substance use in a sample of Russian adolescents
- Collaborative evaluation and management of students’ health-related physical fitness: applications of cluster analysis and the classification tree
- Body weight satisfaction among New Zealand adolescents: findings from a national survey
- Prevalence of common mental disorders among Dutch medical students and related use and need of mental health care: a cross-sectional study
- Reaching Jewish ultra-orthodox adolescents: results from a targeted smoking prevention trial
- Case Report
- Rare cases of disorders of sex development (DSD) in adolescents with female phenotype
