Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:11:14.541Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Children who Poison Themselves I. A Clinical Comparison with Psychiatric Controls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

E. A. Taylor  and
S. A. Stansfeld
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Fifty schoolchildren, admitted as medical emergencies after poisoning themselves, were compared with 50 matched controls, resident in the same area of London, referred for psychiatric help for other reasons. The dependent measures were based upon systematically recorded clinical information in both groups. The self-poisoners showed more psychiatric symptoms and more disturbed family relationships than did the psychiatric group; they were more likely to meet criteria for depressive disorder and to come from families showing little warmth. This form of self-injury is not trivial or wholly culturally determined, and it warrants psychiatric intervention.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 145 , Issue 2 , August 1984 , pp. 127 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1984 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anonymous (1981) “Overdose—will psychiatrist please see?” Lancet, i, 195–196.Google Scholar
Barter, J. T., Swaback, D. O. & Todd, D. (1968) Adolescent suicide attempts. Archives of General Psychiatry, 19, 523–527.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlson, G. A. & Cantwell, D. P. (1982) Suicidal behaviour and depression in children and adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 21, 361–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cazzullo, C. L., Balestri, L. & Generali, L. (1968) Some remarks on attempted suicide in the period of adolescence. Acta Paedopsychiatrica, 35, 325–44.Google ScholarPubMed
Cohen-Sandler, R., Berman, A. L. & King, R. A. (1982a) Life stress and symptomatology: determinants of suicidal behaviour in children. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 21, 2, 178–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen-Sandler, R., Berman, A. L. & King, R. A. (1982b) A follow-up study of hospitalized suicidal children. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 21, 4, 398–403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erikson, E. H. (1968) Identity: Youth and Crisis. W. W. Norton & Co., New York.Google Scholar
Freud, A. (1958) Adolescence. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 13, 255–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gould, R. E. (1965) Suicide problems in children and adolescents. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 19, 228–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hawton, K., O'Grady, J., Osborn, M. & Cole, D. (1982) Adolescents who take overdoses: their characteristics, problems and contacts with helping agencies. British Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 118–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hawton, K. (1982) Attempted suicide in children and adolescents Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 23, 497–503.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kerfoot, M. J. (1979) Parent-child role reversal and adolescent suicidal behaviour. Journal of Adolescence, 2, 337–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kreitman, N., Smith, P. & Tan, E. S. (1970) Attempted suicide as language: an empirical study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 116, 465–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lumsden Walker, W. (1980) Intentional self-injury in school-age children. Journal of Adolescence, 3, 217–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClure, G. M. (1983) Recent trends in suicide amongst the young. British Journal of Psychiatry, in press.Google Scholar
McIntyre, M. S. & Angle, C. (1973) Psychological biopsy in self-poisoning of children and adolescents. American Journal of Disorders of Childhood, 126, 42–6.Google Scholar
Morris, M. G. & Gould, R. W. (1963) Role reversal: a necessary concept in dealing with the battered child syndrome. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 33, 298–9.Google Scholar
Morrison, G. G. (1969) Family treatment approach to suicidal children and adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 8, 140–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Otto, U. (1972) Suicidal acts by children and adolescents. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, Suppl. 233.Google Scholar
Parker, A. (1981) The meaning of attempted suicide to young parasuicides: a repertory grid study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 306–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pearce, J. B. (1974) Childhood Depression. MPhil (Psychiat.) Thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Pfeffer, C. R., Conte, H. R., Plutchik, R. & Jerrett, J. (1980) Suicide behaviour in latency age children: an outpatient population. Journal of American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 19, 707–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rutter, M., Shaffer, D. & Sturge, C. (1976) A guide to a multiaxial classification scheme for psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence, London: Institute of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. (1979) Changing Youth in a Changing Society. London: Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust.Google Scholar
Sabbath, J. C. (1969) The suicidal adolescent—the expendable child. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 8, 272–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schneer, J. I., Kay, P. & Brozovsky, M. (1961) Events and conscious ideation leading to suicide behaviour in adolescence. Psychiatry Quarterly, 35, 507–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shaffer, D. & Fisher, P. (1981) The epidemiology of suicide in children and young adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 20, 545–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shaffer, D. (1982) Diagnostic considerations in suicidal behaviour in children and adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 21, 414–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shrut, A. (1964) Suicidal adolescents and children. Journal of the American Medical Association, 188, 1103–7.Google Scholar
Taylor, E. A. & Stansfeld, S. A. (1984) Children who poison themselves. II. Prediction of attendance for treatment. British Journal of Psychiatry, in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teicher, J. D. (1970) Children and adolescents who attempt suicide. Paediatric Clinics of North America, 17, 687–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thorley, G. (1982) The Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals clinical data register for children and adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 5, 179–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Toolan, J. M. (1962) Suicide and suicidal attempts in children and adolescents. American Journal of Psychiatry, 118, 719–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
White, H. C. (1974) Self-poisoning in adolescence. British Journal of Psychiatry, 124, 24–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yacoubian, J. H. & Lourie, R. S. (1969) Suicide and attempted suicide in children and adolescents. Clinical Proceedings of the Children's Hospital (Washington), 25, 325–44.Google ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.