Citation

Barch DM, Hennefield L, Herzberg MP. JAMA Psychiatry 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.2031

PMID

36044232

Abstract

There is now robust evidence that children as young as preschool-aged can express suicidal ideation, and even engage in behavior that can be understood as suicide attempts.1,2 Young children who express suicidal ideation or exhibit suicidal behaviors have a more accurate understanding of death than their nonsuicidal peers,3 and early suicidal ideation/behavior predicts ongoing suicidal ideation/behavior into school age and in some cases adolescence.4 However, it is still not clear whether the risk factors and variables associated with suicidal ideation/behavior in early adolescence are the same as those later in adolescence or adulthood. To help address this question, Lee et al5 used the large-scale Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study data to generate a very important and informative set of analyses examining whether polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for adult suicide are associated with childhood suicidal ideation and/or attempts, whether this relationship is independent from associations with PRSs for depression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and what mental health or behavioral factors might mediate the association between adult suicide PRSs and child suicide ideation or behaviors. There were several crucial findings from this study. First, PRSs for adult suicide were associated with child suicide attempts, but not ideation. Second, this association with adult suicide PRSs was over and above shared variance with PRSs for depression and ADHD. Third, this association was mediated in part through a variety of parent-reported behaviors, including increased aggression, attention problems, rule-breaking behavior, social problems, and somatic complaints, as well as depressed mood. Fourth, adult suicide PRSs in a data-driven analysis added unique information, along with a number of other risk factors, for estimating child suicide attempt.

Language: en