Predicting Frequency of Suicide Attempts of Adolescent Outpatients at Weskoppies Hospital Using Clinical and Demographic Characteristics (Report‪)‬

Suicidal thinking and behaviour are of grave concern to the psychiatric community, with the prevalence of suicide attempts taking on alarming proportions in some countries. Several international studies have examined the lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts by adolescents between 13 and 18 years old, with figures of 2.7% in the USA, (1) 3% in Norway (2) and 6.5% in the USA and Germany, (3) and an increase from 7% to 13.4% in Greece, (4) being reported over the past few decades. The 12-month prevalence of suicide attempts by high-school students in a similar age range has been reported variously as 1.4% in the USA, 1.7% in Norway, 4.3% in a community sample in Australia and 12% in Nigeria. (1,2,5,6) South African studies have also found high figures for the lifetime prevalence of attempted suicide in secondary school students. For example, Flisher et al. (2006) found that 18.6% of female high school students had attempted suicide, (7) and Cherian et al. (2000) that the frequency of attempted suicide was 11.3% among blacks, 13% among whites and 13.5% among Asians in a group of secondary school pupils aged 17-24 years. (8)