Suicidal behaviour in adolescents: what can be done?

ABSTRACT

Adolescents in India form a major proportion of the population. This age group encounters many stressful events which are more specific to this age group like need to perform in exams, compete for various professional courses, broken love affairs etc. Besides this is the age group for onset of major psychiatric disorders. All these factors make this population very vulnerable to suicidal behaviours. However, there is limited data with regard to suicidal behaviour in this population from India. There is an urgent need to study the various factors associated with suicidal behaviour and how suicidal behaviour can be prevented in this age group.