Trends of attempted suicide in Albanian children and adolescents

Abstract

Background: Attempted suicides and suicides are becoming pertinent social phenomena in Albania, with increasing trend in the last years, exceeding the road traffic accident numbers. Our objective was to examine suicide attempts trends among Albanian children and adolescents. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of standardized suicide attempts rates in Statistic Department at University Hospital Center "Mother Theresa"; epidemiology data for the period spanning from 2006 to 2012. We analyzed the data by age, sex and by suicide attempts method over time for two age groups: 10-14 year old (children) and 15-19 year old (adolescents). Results: We found an average annual increase of the suicide attempts rate for children and adolescents (p<0.001), but stratification by age and sex showed significant variation. By comparing the two age groups it came out that the suicidal phenomena is more present at adolescence age (p<0.001). According to the statistic data and by analyzing the cases on yearly bases it resulted that female gender is more attempt to commit suicide that male gender, with a significant statistical variation of (p<0.001). From the study it was noted that the suicidal attempt methods, in the most of cases, were drug overdose (97.6%) and 2.4% hang themselves (suffocation) or cut their vein. Conclusions: The increasing cases of suicidal tendency among children and adolescents necessitate further studies to identify the causes and risk factors, and to develop suitable preventive programs.