Citation

Poteet DJ. Am. J. Forensic Med. Pathol. 1987; 8(1): 12-17.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1987, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

3578199

Abstract

Suicide among adolescents is reported to be on the increase recently, and much attention from the news media to medical circles has been focused on this problem. This paper presents a comprehensive study of 87 completed adolescent suicides occurring between January 1, 1970, and January 31, 1985, in Shelby County, Tennessee. Factors including age, sex, race, and manner of death are examined as well as psychological, sociological, familial, and other environmental influences related to the deaths. In our series, the older white male adolescent dominated the statistics by far, and the most frequent mode of death was by firearm injury to the head. A brief discussion of studies related to suicide in general, and especially to adolescent suicide, is included.