Objective: to analyze socio-demographic and psychopathological factors affecting attempted suicides by youths admitted to the Hospital de Niños de Córdoba (Argentina).
Methods: prospective study based on clinical interviews and tests conducted on 80% of the patients admitted to the hospital in 2006. The significance level established for statistical comparisons was 0.05.
Results: 70% of the patient were female and 30% were male, the latter having a lower mean age than the female group (p0.001). The most common type of autoagression was the ingestion of medicines (87%). The most significant precedents in the psychopatological histories were: previous attempted suicides and conduct disorders (p0.002); 79% of them were not under treatment. Diagnoses at the moment of admission were: Mood Disorder (74%) and Disocial Disorder (74%).
Conclusions: the main characteristics of this group are previous attempted suicides and psychopathological conditions which could have been diagnosed and treated previously.