The 10-years REPEATERS Cohort of French Adolescents
Condition: Suicide Attempt
MeSH terms: Suicide; Suicide, Attempted
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      Losing contact with adult suicide attempters in the year after the suicide attempt (SA)
      increases the risk of recurrence. The situation with adolescents is unknown. Investigators
      aimed to determine whether being lost to contact early (LCE) by clinicians is a risk factor
      of longterm SA recurrence among adolescents and the associated factors.
    

Detailed description: 
      Local clinical practice :

      After an SA, adolescents receive treatment in the Children's Hospital or in the center of
      psychiatric consultation (few go to a private care clinic). All centers of psychiatric
      consultation belong to the same hospital center, which uses a unique medical record.
      According to the local clinical practice, patients and their parents systematically meet the
      child and adolescent psychiatric-department social worker at the time of the SA. The social
      worker informs the family that they will be called after 1 year to determine whether patients
      are safe or whether they need to resume care. For this call, the social worker uses the phone
      number listed in the medical record or finds the phone number in the national phone
      directory. If the social worker fails to contact the patient, the patient is considered LCE.

      Patient follow-up :

      Ten years after the index SA (every other year from 2004 to 2010), a self-reporting
      questionnaire will be sent to all adolescent suicide attempters and their parents, with a
      letter explaining the research. If the address of the patient is not available, the hospital
      records department will be contacted to collect these data for patients who will be
      re-hospitalized during the study period. When adolescent suicide attempters will be not
      contacted and when no information will be found in hospital records, the French Civil status
      Office will be called to determine whether patients were still alive. When no further
      information will be obtained, the adolescent will be considered lost to follow-up (LF) at the
      time of the last information from 1 to 10 years after the index SA.

      Data collection :

      At the time of the index SA, personal and family data will be collected from medical records
      for adolescents: personal characteristics (sex, age, history of SA [yes/no], psychiatric
      comorbidities of the SA [yes/no] according to the International Classification of Disease 10
      (WHO, 1993), school difficulties [yes/no], and family characteristics (marital relationship
      of parents [separated or not], professional status of each parent [working or not], family
      history of SA [yes/no], and alcoholic dependence of parents [yes/no]). After the index SA,
      data on duration of hospitalization, psychiatric follow-up [yes/no], recurrence of SA in the
      year following the index SA (early SA recurrence [yes/no]), and LCE status [yes/no]) will be
      collected. Ten years after the index SA, a self-reporting questionnaire will be sent to the
      patient to assess SA recurrence.
    

Observational model: Cohort
Time perspective: Retrospective
Sampling method: Non-Probability Sample
Study population: 
        all adolescents (ages 13e18 years old) who were hospitalized after an SA every other year
        from 1994 to 2000 in Nancy University Children's Hospital, were included without the same
        patient being included twice.
      
Keywords: Adolescent; Lost to contact; Recurrence; Long-term outcome