A Case Study of the Suicide of a Female Adolescent

Background: An adolescent, who makes a suicide attempt, feels desperate and "trapped" in personal and family problems. The desire to escape a life that is unbearable may lead to repeated suicide attempts. Suicide attempts are 2 to 4 times more common in girls.

Objective: To determine which factors led a female adolescent to end her pain by choosing death over life.

Methods: In this case study focusing on an adolescent female who took her life at the age of 15, the researcher investigated the personal, environmental, and cultural variables that may have contributed to her death by suicide.

Results: The case of Christina, the girl who committed suicide at the age of 15, has been studied. The young girl, the last child of a five-member family, had accused her father of sexual abuse after her mother’s death. She had been admitted in psychiatric department with the diagnosis of severe major depression and active suicidal ideation. She exhibited very intense and deep depressive feelings, substance and alcohol abuse, despair, memory loss, flashbacks and daily self-destructive behavior by refusing all food and liquids for a long time (voluntary stopping of eating and drinking / electrolyte disturbances), by shallowing of objects and chemicals and causing head injuries. Christina had, also, exhibited aggressive and hostile behavior by being physically violent and easily involved in quarrels. During the 8 months of hospitalization she finally made a serious suicide attempt by hanging. After the suicide attempt, Christina was unable to walk and speak, so she was transferred to a physical rehabilitation center, where she died by totally stopping of eating and drinking.

Conclusion: Pediatricians and other health professionals involved in adolescents’ care need more in-depth information about the characteristics and the warning signs for suicide so that suicide can be prevented.