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Are Adolescent Suicide Attempters Noncompliant with Outpatient Care?

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Abstract

The outpatient clinic attendance patterns of 115 consecutively referred 10− to 18-year-old suicide attempters and of 110 nonattempters were compared. The two groups did not differ in number of appointments scheduled or missed, but attempters kept significantly fewer appointments than did nonattempters. Seventy-seven percent of each group dropped out of treatment, but attempters dropped out significantly faster. Attendance and dropout were unrelated to age, reason for referral, or previous attempts. Girls missed more appointments than did boys, and Hispanic patients kept a smaller percentage of scheduled appointments than did other ethnic groups. We conclude that adolescent attempters are not more likely to drop out of treatment but keep fewer appointments and remain in care more briefly than do other outpatients. Recommendations for triage and brief case management are made.

Key Words

suicide attempts
adolescents
treatment compliance

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This study was supported in part by grants from the Leon Lowenstein Foundation, the van Ameringen Foundation, and NIMH Clinical Research Center Grant MH 30906–10. The authors thank Jacqueline Martin, R.N., M.S., James Iniguez, Sarah Mack, and Daniel Salzman for their assistance with record reviewing, and Drs. David Shaffer, Theodore Shapiro, Andrew Leon, and Mark Davies for their comments on the manuscript.

These data were presented, in part, at the 33rd annual meeting of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, Los Angeles, California, October 17, 1986 and the 36th annual meeting, New York, October 12, 1989.