Aim: to analyze the cases of suicide committed by adolescents in and around the city of Milan over a 20-year period (1993-2012).
Materials and methods: cases of suicide involving individuals between 10 and 19 years of age were drawn from 20,757 autopsies performed by the Medico-legal Unit at Milan University. Seventy-eight cases were considered (20 females and 58 males, with the ratio of 1:2.9), and their clinical and circumstantial histories, epidemiology, forensic pathology and psychopathological issues were analyzed.
Result: Adolescents were involved in 2.23% of all suicides committed in Milan during the period examined. The "mean" victim is a male without psychiatric disease, aged between 16 and 19, that commits suicide outdoors.
Conclusions: In the majority of cases, there were no premonitory signs, nor any particular contingent or remote reason that might explain these violent deaths, which therefore remain "impulsive".
Keywords: Adolescence; Forensic pathology; Psychopathology; Suicide.
Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.