Until recently, suicidal behaviour in children and adolescents was associated to less serious psychopathological disorders, such as adjustment disorder. In the last decades, according to international sources, psychopathological disorders associated to suicide attempts have become more serious.
Objective: To describe the frequency of mental and conduct disorders in children and adolescents that attempted suicide, in order to identify self-aggression methods and previous psychopathological antecedents.
Material and methods: Cross sectional study based on clinical interviews to 41 children and adolescents hospitalized in Hospital de Niños de Córdoba for suicide attempt.
Results: Ingestion of psychotropics is the most frequent self-aggression method (p< 0.0001). Psychopathological history, such as previous suicide attempt and conduct disorder, were predominant (p< 0.0001) in children and adolescents hospitalized for suicide attempt. Pathologies most frequently associated to suicide attempt were depression (29.27%) and conduct disorder (24.39%).
Conclusions: Children and adolescents with suicide attempt had previous psychopathological antecedents and important mental disorders such as depression and conduct disorder, which require adequate treatment and sanitary control, in order to avoid more severe consequences. The most used method to attempt suicide was ingestion of psychotropics.