Evidence on youth suicide prevention highlights research gaps

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7501.1210-b

BMJ 2005;330:1210 (21 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7501.1210-b

Letter

Evidence on youth suicide prevention highlights research gaps

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Hawton and James' review on youth suicide and deliberateself harm is a timely reminder of the public health importanceof suicide as a cause of death in young people.¹

A recent evidence briefing on youth suicide prevention, completedby my coauthors and me with the Health Development Agency andthe Institute of Public Health in Ireland, highlighted the gapsin research on this important area.² The briefing is a reviewof systematic reviews and meta-analyses and draws on some ofHawton's previous work.³

Many of the reviews found that primary research in this arealacked sufficient programme description to allow the interventionsto be replicated in other areas. The briefing highlighted thedifficulty in finding answers to youth suicide prevention throughrandomised controlled trials. Suicide is a rare outcome andrequires large trials to develop significant findings. To isolatethe impact of the study intervention amid other . . . [Full text of this article]

Philip A Crowley, specialist in public health medicine

Institute of Public Health in Ireland, 5th Floor, Bishop's Square, Redmond's Hill, Dublin 2, Republic of Ireland philip.crowley@publichealth.ie