Methods: Data were extracted from the electronic medical record (EMR) of 1,790 individuals 14 to 29 years of age who presented to an academic healthcare system in the Midwestern United States following a suicide attempt using an Electronic Medical Record Search Engine (EMERSE). Trained research assistants conducted chart reviews and coded quantitative and qualitative data from the EMR. Demographic characteristics (e.g., race, gender), clinical characteristics (e.g., diagnosis, history of attempt), and details pertaining to their recent suicide attempt (e.g., method, suicide intent) were examined using SPSS28.
Results: On average, participants were 18.86 years of age (SD = 4.19), most often identified as female (68.3%) and white (74%), and had a 7-day length of stay in the hospital (SD = 7.27). Approximately 29% of patients only received care in the emergency department, while 37% were admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit, 7.6% were admitted to a medical unit, and 25.8% were admitted to both medical and psychiatric units. Suicide intent, post-attempt symptoms/injuries, and medical intervention were all significantly associated with longer lengths of stay. Interestingly, there were no significant differences by age in suicide intent, post-attempt symptoms/injury, medical intervention, or length of stay.
Conclusions and Implications: Findings highlight characteristics of TAY who attempted suicide and emphasize the consistent prevalence of intent, injury, intervention, and length of stay across ages. Currently, healthcare systems often distinguish their approach to psychiatric emergencies between pediatric and adult populations. However, these findings may suggest a need to better tailor intervention efforts for those in the transitional ages, particularly emerging adults. Future investigations will expand upon our exploratory results to test a longitudinal mediation model of suicide risk and behavior in this population. This research has strong potential to elucidate how risk evolves throughout the transition from adolescence to young adulthood to better inform suicide prevention approaches and tailoring within intervention efforts.