Adolescent inpatient girls' report of dependent life events predicts prospective suicide risk

Adolescents with a history of suicidal behavior are especially vulnerable for future suicide attempts, particularly following discharge from an inpatient psychiatric admission. This study is the first to test whether adolescents' tendency to generate stress, or report more dependent events to which they contributed, was predictive of prospective suicide events. Ninety adolescent psychiatric inpatients who were admitted for recent suicide risk, completed diagnostic interviews, assessments of history of suicidal behavior, and a self-report questionnaire of major life events at baseline. Participants were followed over the subsequent 6 months after discharge to assess stability vs. onset of suicide events. Cox proportional hazard regressions were used to predict adolescents' time to suicide events. Results supported hypothesis, such that only recent greater dependent events, not independent or overall events, predicted risk for prospective suicide events. This effect was specific to adolescent girls. Importantly, dependent events maintained statistical significance as a predictor of future suicide events after co-varying for the effects of several established risk factors and psychopathology. Results suggest that the tendency to generate dependent events may contribute unique additional prediction for adolescent girls' prospective suicide risk, and highlight the need for future work in this area.