Questions on suicide not harmful to teens, says survey

CHICAGO - Asking teenagers if they think about suicide does not increase the risk they will act on it.

And it may actually help adolescents who suffer from depression, say researchers.

More than 2300 students at six suburban New York high schools filled out questionnaires on the subject.

Neither group exhibited increased distress or suicidal thoughts after participating, including at-risk individuals with a history of suicide attempts, depression or drug abuse.

"On the contrary, the findings suggested that asking about suicidal ideation or behaviour may have been beneficial for students with depression symptoms or previous suicide attempts," said the study's lead author, Madelyn Gould, of New York State Psychiatric Institute.

"Our findings can allay concerns about the potential harm of high school-based suicide screening," she wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Health professionals should not hesitate to pose such questions, she said.

Previous studies have shown screening can be effective in identifying youths who may contemplate suicide.

But suicide awareness programmes in schools could be detrimental, the report said.

The National Institute of Mental Health said there were 1611 suicides in the 15- to 19-year-old age group in 2001, with five times as many boys killing themselves as girls.

There were more than 4000 suicides among 15- to 24-year-olds in 2002, according to Government data collected by the American Association of Suicidology.

- REUTERS