Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The STEP trials

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 1/2008

01-01-2008 | ORIGINAL PAPER

Familial clustering of suicidal behaviour and psychopathology in young suicide attempters

A register-based nested case control study

Authors: Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz, Finn Rasmussen, Danuta Wasserman

Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | Issue 1/2008

Login to get access

Abstract

Introduction

Familial clustering of suicidal behaviour and psychopathology has been reported in young suicide attempters. Most of these studies were predominantly carried out in clinical treatment settings and lacked statistical power to assess the independent and modifying influences of own and familial psychopathology and suicidal behaviour.

Methods

We carried out a population-based record-linkage study with a nested case control design. The 14,440 individuals hospitalised due to suicide attempt (cases) and 144,400 matched controls were born in Sweden between 1968 and 1980 and followed up till December 31, 1999.

Results

Among the strongest independent familial risk factors for youth suicide attempt were siblings’ (OR 3.4; 2.8–4.1), maternal (OR 2.7; 2.5–3.1) and paternal (OR 1.9; 1.7–2.1) suicide attempt. Other important risk factors were familial personality and substance abuse disorders, maternal schizophrenia, non-affective psychoses and organic disorders and parental neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders (1.9–3.2 fold increase), and paternal (OR 1.9; 1.6–2.3) and maternal (OR 1.8; 1.3–2.4) suicide completion. Mental illnesses in index subjects, particularly substance abuse, affective and personality disorders, were the dominant determinants of suicide attempt. Strong interactions were observed between psychopathology in index subjects and familial suicidality. Familial suicide completion had a stronger effect on suicide attempt of earlier onset and on boys. Nearly half (47%) of all suicide attempts could be attributed to familial psychopathology (13%), family suicide attempt (7%) and suicide completion (1%) and own psychopathology (25%).

Conclusion

Early recognition and adequate treatment of individual mental illness contribute to prevent youth suicide attempts. Children of parents with psychopathology and suicidal behaviour should receive early support and attention. Evaluation of familial suicidal behaviour seems to be vital for suicide risk assessment in young psychiatric inpatients. There appears to be an independent effect of familial suicidal behaviour as well as familial psychopathology on youth suicide attempt beyond the transmission of mental illness.
Literature
1.
Agerbo E, Nordentoft M, Mortensen PB (2002) Familial psychiatric, and socioeconomic risk factors for suicide in young people: nested case-control study. BMJ 323:74–79CrossRef
2.
Allebeck P, Allgulander C, Henningsohn L, Jakobsson SW (1991) Causes of death in a cohort of 50465 young men—validity of recorded suicide as underlying cause of death. Scand J Soc Med 19:242–247PubMed
3.
Andrews JA, Lewinsohn PM (1992) Suicidal attempts among older adolescents: prevalence and co-occurrence with psychiatric disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 31:655–662PubMedCrossRef
4.
Brent DA, Mann JJ (2005) Family genetic studies, suicide, and suicidal behavior. Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet 133:13–24PubMed
5.
Brent DA, Perper JA, Moritz G, Liotus L, Schweers J, Balach L, Roth C (1994) Familial risk factors for adolescent suicide: a case-control study. Acta Psychiatr Scand 89:52–58PubMedCrossRef
6.
Brent DA, Bridge J, Johnson BA, Connolly J (1996) Suicidal behaviour runs in families. A controlled family study of adolescent suicide victims. Arch Gen Psychiatry 53:1143–1152
7.
Brent DA, Oquendo M, Birmaher B, et al. (2002) Familial pathways to early-onset suicide attempt: risk for suicidal behavior in offspring of mood-disordered suicide attempters. Arch Gen Psychiatry 59:801–807PubMedCrossRef
8.
Christoffersen MN, Soothill K (2003) The long-term consequences of parental alcohol abuse: a cohort study of children in Denmark. J Subst Abuse Treat 25:107–116PubMedCrossRef
9.
Christoffersen MN, Poulsen HD, Nielsen A (2003) Attempted suicide among young people: risk factors in a prospective register based study of Danish children born in 1966. Acta Psychiatr Scand 108:350–358PubMedCrossRef
10.
Cnattingius S, Ericson A, Gunnarskog J, Kallen B (1990) A quality study of a medical birth register. Scand J Soc Med 18:143–148PubMed
11.
Dalman Ch, Broms J, Cullberg J, Allebeck P (2002) Young cases of schizophrenia identified in a national inpatient register—are the diagnoses valid? Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 37:527–531PubMedCrossRef
12.
Fergusson DM, Lynskey MT (1995) Suicide attempts and suicidal ideation in a birth cohort of 16-year-old New Zealanders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 34:1308–1317PubMed
13.
Fu Q, Heath AC, Bucholz KK, Nelson EC, Glowinski AL, Goldberg J, Lyons MJ, Tsuang MT, Jacob T, True MR, Eisen SA (2002) A twin study of genetic and environmental influences on suicidality in men. Psychol Med 32:11–24PubMedCrossRef
14.
Garfinkel BD, Froese A, Hood J (1982) Suicide attempts in children and adolescents. Am J Psychiatry 139:1257–1261PubMed
15.
Glowinski AL, Bucholz KK, Nelson EC, Fu Q, Madden PA, Reich W, Heath AC (2001) Suicide attempts in an adolescent female twin sample. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 40:1300–1307PubMedCrossRef
16.
Goodman M, New A, Siever L (2004) Trauma, genes, and the neurobiology of personality disorders. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1032:104–116PubMedCrossRef
17.
Goodwin RD, Beautrais AL, Fergusson DM (2004) Familial transmission of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts: evidence from a general population sample. Psychiatry Res 126:159–165PubMedCrossRef
18.
Haw C, Hawton K, Houston K, Townsend E (2001) Psychiatric and personality disorders in deliberate self-harm patients. Br J Psychiatry 178:48–54PubMedCrossRef
19.
Hawton K, Haw C, Houston K, Townsend E (2002) Family history of suicidal behaviour: prevalence and significance in deliberate self-harm patients. Acta Psychiatr Scand 106:387–393PubMedCrossRef
20.
Johnson BA, Brent DA, Bridge J, Connolly J (1998) The familial aggregation of adolescent suicide attempts. Acta Psychiatr Scand 97:18–24PubMedCrossRef
21.
Lieb R, Bronisch T, Höfler T, Schreier A, Wittchen HU (2005) Maternal suicidality and risk of suicidality in offspring: findings from a community study. Am J Psychiatry 162:1165–1671CrossRef
22.
Mittendorfer-Rutz E, Rasmussen F, Wasserman D (2004) Restricted fetal growth and adverse maternal psychosocial and socioeconomic conditions as risk factors for suicidal behaviour of offspring: a cohort study. Lancet 364:1135–1140PubMedCrossRef
23.
Pfeffer CR, Normandin L, Kakuma T (1994) Suicidal children grow up: suicidal behavior and psychiatric disorders among relatives. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 33: 1087–1097PubMedCrossRef
24.
Qin P, Agerbo E, Mortensen PB (2002) Suicide risk in relation to family history of completed suicide and psychiatric disorders: a nested case-control study based on longitudinal registers. Lancet 360:1126–1130PubMedCrossRef
25.
Qin P, Agerbo E, Bo Mortensen PB (2003) Suicide risk in relation to socioeconomic, demographic, psychiatric, and familial factors: a national register-based study of all suicides in Denmark, 1981–1997. Am J Psychiatry 160:765–772PubMedCrossRef
26.
Ramchandani P, Stein A, Evens J, O’Connor TG (2005) Paternal depression in the postnatal period and child development: a prospective population study. Lancet 365:2201–2205PubMedCrossRef
27.
Roy A (2004) Family history of suicidal behavior and earlier onset of suicidal behavior. Psychiatry Res 129:217–219PubMedCrossRef
28.
Runeson BS (1998) History of suicidal behaviour in the families of young suicides. Acta Psychiatr Scand 98:497–501PubMedCrossRef
29.
Schulsinger F, Kety SS, Rosenthal D, Wender PH (1979) A family study of suicide. In: Schou M, Stromgren E (eds) Academic Press, New York, pp 277–287
30.
Sørenson SB, Rutter CM (1991) Transgenerational patterns of suicide attempt. J Consult Clin Psychol 59:861–866PubMedCrossRef
31.
Wender PH, Kety SS, Rosenthal D, Schulsinger F, Ortman J, Lunde I (1986) Psychiatric diagnoses in the biological and adoptive families of adopted individuals with affective disorders. Arch Gen Psychiatry 43:923–929PubMed
Metadata
Title
Familial clustering of suicidal behaviour and psychopathology in young suicide attempters
A register-based nested case control study
Authors
Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz
Finn Rasmussen
Danuta Wasserman
Publication date
01-01-2008
Publisher
D. Steinkopff-Verlag
Published in
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology / Issue 1/2008
Print ISSN: 0933-7954
Electronic ISSN: 1433-9285
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-007-0266-0

Other articles of this Issue 1/2008

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 1/2008 Go to the issue

ORIGINAL PAPER

Two models of job stress and depressive symptoms

ORIGINAL PAPER

Hotel room suicide: Las Vegas and Clark County

ORIGINAL PAPER

Evidence for a relationship between the duration of untreated psychosis and the proportion of psychotic homicides prior to treatment

ORIGINAL PAPER

Temporary parental separation at birth and substance use disorder in adulthood

ORIGINAL PAPER

Symptomatic expression of depression among Jewish adolescents: effects of gender and age

ORIGINAL PAPER

Religious activity and lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorder