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Article: Editorial: Adolescent Suicide and Suicidal Behavior: A Time to Assess and a Time to Treat
- Article from:
- The Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences
- Article date:
- July 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Gefen Publishing House Ltd. 2003. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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In the past two decades, there has been tremendous progress in understanding the phenomenology, risk factors and prognosis of adolescent suicide and suicidal behavior. When we both began working in this area, experts would list 10 "myths" of adolescent suicide, beginning with "adolescents who commit suicide are mentally ill." Now, on the basis of psychological autopsy studies conducted in the United States, Israel, Canada, New Zealand and Finland, we know that most youths who commit suicide have one, and often more than one major psychiatric illness (1).
While some youths commit suicide relatively early in the course of their illness (2), most adolescent suicide victims commit suicide after ...