[Repeated suicide attempts by children and adolescents--results of a retrospective study]. / Wiederholungen von Suizidversuchen durch Kinder und Jugendliche--Ergebnisse einer retrospektiven Studie.

Children and adolescents who had attempted suicide once are at higher risk for further suicide attempts. In order to better identify those likely to make a further suicide attempt, they were compared at the time of their first suicide attempt with those who had only attempted suicide once. The details of all children and adolescents who had attempted suicide and been treated as inpatients or outpatients in the University Hospital in Göttingen, Germany, over a 10-year period were collected by file-analysis. Sociodemographic characteristics, stresses that preceded the suicide attempts and the chosen methods of attempted suicide were ascertained. 55 male und 116 female subjects had attempted suicide once, 17 male and 79 female subjects had attempted suicide more than once. Those with repeated suicide attempts were younger at the time of their first suicide attempt at 14 years and eight months, than those who did not make a repeat attempt, at 15 years and 7 months. Male repeaters more often experienced conflicts with their parents. Female repeaters were suffering more from emotional or chronic physical diseases and more often drank alcohol in connection with their first suicide attempt. Paediatricians, who are often the first to be confronted with suicide attempts by young people, should work towards providing psychotherapeutic support especially for children and younger adolescents with the particular stresses described.

Male adolescent sex offenders against children: similarities and differences between those offenders with and those without a history of sexual abuse.

This study compares a defined sample of male adolescents (n = 36) with regard to their personal development, family characteristics and the types of offence they committed. Adolescent sex offenders with (n = 16) and without (n = 20) a history of sexual abuse who had offended against children were investigated during ongoing criminal proceedings by means of questionnaires and intelligence tests. The most important characteristic that distinguishes the two groups from each other is the more frequent absence of the parents of adolescents who committed sexual offences against children and had a history of sexual abuse. The consequences to be drawn from these results with regard to aggressive sexual delinquency in adolescence are discussed and suggestions are made with regard to further avenues of investigation.

[Comparison of suicide attempts by male and female adolescents. Results of a 10-year patient population of a child and adolescent psychiatry clinic]. / Suizidversuche durch männliche und weibliche Jugendliche im Vergleich. Ergebnisse einer 10-Jahres-Inanspruchnahmepopulation einer Klinik für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie.

OBJECTIVE: This study examines the way in which suicide attempts differ between male and female adolescents. METHODS: The characteristics of 173 female and 62 male adolescents who were treated at a clinic for child and adolescent psychiatry over a period of 10 years were investigated. RESULTS: Suicide attempts by adolescents in the patient population did not decrease in accordance with suicides in the same age-group among the general population. Male adolescents more often attempted suicide in a place where they were less likely to be discovered, but did not use a "harsher" method than female adolescents. The diagnosis rendered according to ICD-10 in 36% of cases was not always typical for the respective sex. CONCLUSIONS: The ways in which adolescents attempt suicide have clearly changed over the past years. Diagnoses that are untypical for the respective sex may represent a risk factor.