Zeitschrift für klinische Toxikologie
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Suicide Attempts by Ingestion of Drugs in Adolescents in Mexico

Janett Flores-Pérez, Hugo Juárez-Olguín, Carmen Flores-Pérez and Liliana Rivera Espinosa

Aim:To determine the frequency of suicide attempts by the use of drugs in adolescents in a tertiary care hospital and to identify the causes.

Methods:A retrospective and descriptive study was performed considering socioeconomic, cultural and biological issues related to the use of drugs for suicide attempts in adolescents who were attended from January 1995 to March 2005, at the National Institute of Pediatrics, Mexico City.

Results: A total of 141 drug intoxication cases were detected among which 40 were suicide attempts with 22 of them being girls and 18 boys, median age of 13 years. The most frequently used drugs for the suicide attempt cases were analgesics in 18, and antidepressants in 11. In 14 of the cases, parents’ divorce and family dysfunction were found to be the risk factors provoking the suicide attempt.

Conclusion: Analgesics and antidepressants are drugs commonly used in suicide attempts. Suicidal behavior in adolescents can be caused by psychological and social factors, which in most cases, is preceded by depressive disorders.