Epidemiology case study

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Case Study-Teen Suicide

This case study is from the Cases in Population-Oriented Prevention (C-POP) series authored by Lloyd F. Novick, MD, MPH, Don Cibular, PhD, and Sally M. Sutphen, MSc, MPH.

Part of the case study is below. You may access the entire PDF document entitled, Adolescent Suicide Prevention, in Google Scholar.

ADOLESCENT SUICIDE:

In the United States, mental disorders collectively account for more than 15 percent of the burden of disease for all causes that is slightly more than the burden associated with all forms of cancer. In children and adolescents, the most frequently diagnosed mood disorders are major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, and bipolar disorder. The incidence of suicide attempts reaches a peak during the mid-adolescent years (14-17 years of age). Mortality from suicide increases steadily throughout the teenage years and is the third leading cause of death for that age. In 1996, 82 billion dollars were spent on treatment of mental health services. ¹

Between April 1998 and April 2002, five people died after falling or jumping at a large shopping mall in Syracuse, New York. Three of the individuals were adolescents or young adults (17-20 years old).

The mall consists of seven levels with a large open atrium. Each of the levels has a railing approximately four feet high that functions as a barrier to prevent an individual from jumping or falling to the bottom of the main atrium. Of the five individuals noted above, three jumped from the third level (Cinema Floor); one fell or jumped from the second level; and one fell off an escalator railing. Details of the circumstances in each of these cases are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Case histories for five individuals who jumped or fell to their death at a mall in Syracuse adapted from records from the Onondaga County Health Department, 1998-2002

Case	Scene	Cause of Death	Past History
45 yo female	Jumped from 3rdfloor	Multiple injuries due to fall from height	History of psychiatric problems including bipolar disorder and prior suicide attempts, was under treatment at the time of death Marital problems
17 yo male	Jumped from 3rdfloor Was impaired by drugs at time of death Landed on a table on the basement level where a 10-12 yo boy was eating. The impact shattered the table and injured the patron.	Multiple injuries due to fall from height	History of over-the-counter drug abuse including cold preparations and anti-motion sickness medications Apprehended on the day of death for shoplifting Recent tension with mother about drug use No prior history of depression or suicidal ideation
49 yo female	Jumped from 3rdfloor after asking about access to higher floors Witness screamed “No” but case jumped without speaking	Multiple injuries due to fall from height	History of depression and suicidal ideation Recent loss of step-mother, financial concerns and stress at work
19 yo male	Lost balance on escalator railing, falling 28 feet Appeared intoxicated prior to death	Multiple injuries due to fall from height	No data available
20 yo female	Leaned over backwards on 2ndfloor, fell off. Brain matter was widely scattered There were numerous witnesses, several of whom were referred for mental health counseling	Multiple injuries due to fall from height	History of major psychotic illness, discharged from local hospital the day prior to death

Questions:

1. For each death, indicate if the death should be classified as a suicide.
2. What criteria (major and minor) were used in your determination of the above?
3. Is this situation (suicide at a public mall) a public health matter?
4. Would you consider preventive interventions for this situation? If so, what methods would you employ?
5. Are deaths from suicides preventable?

Please review Table 2 below on completed adolescent suicides in Onondaga County residents from January 1993-Present, and then answer the following questions.

Table 2: Completed Adolescent Suicides in Onondaga County,

January 1993-Jan 2004

Data Source: Medical Examiner’s Office, Onondaga County Health Department, 2004

Questions:

1. Identify biases in the reporting data in completed suicides.
2. Comment on age, gender, time, and method of these suicides.
3. What are possible explanations for the gender difference?
4. Define “risk factor” for a health condition or disease.
5. What risk factors have been identified for adolescent suicide?

In 1999, the Onondaga County Health Department (OCHD) performed a study of adolescent suicide attempts. The objective of this study was to obtain information on all children and adolescents (up to 19 years of age) presenting to hospital emergency departments with suicide attempt or ideation. All four Syracuse hospital emergency departments, one of which has a specific mission to respond to mental health emergencies (the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program), participated in the study.

For each visit meeting the inclusion criteria requirement (see Table 3 below), a health care provider at the emergency department collected information using a uniform instrument. Information was obtained about the patient, time and place of the attempt, method used, perceived threat to life, and patient’s disposition.

During the one-year period, 266 visits were investigated. Of these, 156 were described as suicide attempts and 110 were described as suicidal ideation. The results of this study are provided in Figures 1-8 (There is no Figure 3). For the following questions, please refer to these figures.

Table 3: Adolescent Suicide Surveillance Project: Inclusion Criteria for any adolescent (<19 yo ) who presents to the Emergency Department with:

*Could be suspected by another person (family member, friend, teacher, etc.) or by health care provider’s intuition

Data Source: Onondaga County Health Department

Questions:

1. Provide an operational definition of “suicide attempt” and “suicidal ideation.”
2. Using the raw numbers (in brackets), comment on age distribution of attempted suicide/suicide ideation cases (Figure 1). Are younger children in this study more likely to have only suicidal ideation (versus actual attempts?) Does this surprise you?
3. List possible explanations for the peak of suicide reports in August through October 1999 (Figure 2).
4. Comment on the gender distribution of attempted suicide/suicide ideation cases (Figure 4). How does this distribution differ from that described for the completed suicides?
5. Describe the relationship between drug/alcohol abuse and suicide attempts/suicidal ideation (Figure 5). What are the shortcomings of the data in making conclusions about these factors?
6. How does the distribution of methods used in the suicide attempts compare with the distribution of methods described for the completed suicides (Figure 6)?
7. How do health care professionals judge how dangerous different methods of suicide are (Figures 6 and 7)?
8. Please refer to Figure 8 showing patient disposition by attempt status. List the factors that are important in determining the appropriate follow-up of an adolescent presenting to an emergency department following a suicide attempt. How would you determine whether a patient should be hospitalized?

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force concluded that evidence was insufficient to recommend for or against routine screening of children or adolescents for depression. They noted that up to 2 percent of children and 4.5 percent of adolescents in primary care settings suffer from depression and that clinicians should be alert for possible signs of depression in younger children. Research involving children and adolescents that is currently in progress at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) will hopefully add to this evidence base. ²

Schaffer and Craft of Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute have reported on using systematic screening with a self-administered unit for predictors of suicide in a high school population in New York City. ³

Screening for mood changes, depression, suicide ideation, and substance abuse may be an important tool to identify adolescents at risk for suicide. A self-administered screening test addressing questions of mood (feeling unhappy or sad), anger, temper, suicidal thoughts, and substance abuse can be employed. Students who have a positive score on this test are referred for a formal diagnostic interview by a trained mental health professional (e.g. clinical psychologist or psychiatrist) who then makes the diagnostic and risk determination as well as the decision to refer the student for treatment. In this situation, the screening test is the self-administered tool to the high-school population while the diagnostic test (“gold standard”) is formal interview by the mental health professional.

In the following hypothetical example, 1000 students are screened with a self-administered instrument in urban high schools in Syracuse. Students who screen positive (mood disturbances, suicidal thoughts, substance abuse, etc…) are referred to a mental health professional who then establishes the diagnosis. The results are as follows:

Condition*

Present Absent

*as established by the diagnostic interview

Questions:

1. Calculate the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of this screening test.

1. Sensitivity: ________
2. Specificity: ________
3. Positive Predictive Value: ________
4. Negative Predictive Value: ________
5. List the possible problems associated with this type of screening procedure in the school setting. Are there methods to overcome these limitations?

The current cost of this screening procedure is $20 per student screened (Step 1). For students who have a positive screening test, an additional cost of approximately $75 per student is incurred for the diagnostic interview with a mental health professional (Step 2).

Refer to the information below for the number of middle and high schools in Onondaga County and their respective enrollment.

SCHOOL AND STUDENT POPULATION INFORMATION*

Onondaga County, New York, 2000–2001 Academic Year

Total number of High Schools: 20

Total High School Population (Grades 9-12): 24,982

Range of school size: 292- 2,900 students

Total number of Middle Schools 24

Total Middle School Population: 19,946

Range of school size: 58- 1,690 students:

*Data Source: Onondaga County Madison (OCM) Boces, NYS Department of Education

1. Will you advise the local school board to adopt this screening method as a preventive intervention to reduce adolescent suicide in the entire middle and high school population in Onondaga County? (List the considerations in making this decision.)
2. Do you advise applying this screening procedure in pilot or demonstration schools?

An important component in developing a sustainable screening program is determining the effectiveness of the program. An effective screening program should significantly reduce adverse outcomes such as morbidity and mortality in the at-risk population.

1. How would you proceed to evaluate the effectiveness of this suicide screening method? With whom would you collaborate?
2. Describe the study intervention that you would test (specifics of screening program).
3. What outcomes would you select to measure?
4. What types of study designs are most commonly used to determine the effectiveness of screening interventions?
5. Frequent concerns facing researchers in the process of designing a study include statistical power and selection bias. How would you address these in your study?
6. Taking all of the above factors into account, what study design would you select to evaluate the effectiveness of a newly adopted screening method to decrease the risk of adolescent suicide in your middle and high school population?

References:

1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, 1999.
2. Screening for Depression. Recommendations and Rationale. May 2002. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/3rduspstf/depression/de…
3. Shaffer D, Craft L. Methods of Adolescent Suicide Prevention. J Clin Psych; 1999: 60:70-74.

Data Source: TeenWatch, the Adolescent Suicide Surveillance Project in Onondaga Co, NY

Figure 4: Emergency Department Visits for Suicide Attempts or Suicidal Ideation, by Gender 12/98- 12/99 (n=266)

Data Source: TeenWatch, the Adolescent Suicide Surveillance Project in Onondaga Co, NY

Figure 5: Reported Visits for Suicide Attempts and Ideation by Drug and Alcohol Use, 12/1/98 – 12/31/99

Data Source: TeenWatch, the Adolescent Suicide Surveillance Project in Onondaga Co, NY

Data Source for both figures TeenWatch, the Adolescent Suicide Surveillance Project in Onondaga Co, NY

Data Source: TeenWatch, the Adolescent Suicide Surveillance Project in Onondaga Co, NY

Data Source: TeenWatch, the Adolescent Suicide Surveillance Project in Onondaga Co, N Y

 

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