After Suicide Attempt, Young Females at Higher Risk for Substance Use
Young women and girls are more likely to develop serious substance use problems after a suicide attempt, a study suggests.Researchers followed more than 122,000 female youths for about three decades, starting when they were 8 to 19 years old. Overall, about 5,800 of them, or slightly less than 5 percent, had attempted suicide.During follow-up, women who had a history of attempted suicide were 5 times more likely to be hospitalized for a substance use disorder, researchers reported in JAMA Psychiatry. The odds rose with the number of suicide attempts, with three or more suicide attempts associated with 21 times the risk of substance use hospitalizations.While the risk of developing substance use disorders was highest over the first five years after a suicide attempt, these women remained at increased risk for…