Reducing loneliness may reduce the risk of suicide among teenagers whose mothers are depressed

Children of mothers with depressive symptoms are at greater risk, as adolescents, of experiencing suicide and attempting suicide.

New research suggests that this link could be explained by loneliness, opening up new avenues for juvenile suicide prevention.

The study – by the universities of Exeter, Montreal, Laval and McGill – used data from more than 1,600 families from the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, a representative sample of new cities in Quebec that ranged from birth to 20 years of age.

Mothers were asked about symptoms of depression (such as sadness and loss of interest in previously unpleasant activities) at regular intervals while their children were between five months and seven years old.

The resulting information provided a measure of the symptoms of depression – not a clinical diagnosis of depression.

Teenagers completed self-reports of suicidal thoughts and attempts at the age of 13-20 years.

Children of mothers with higher levels of depressive symptoms were approximately 15% more likely to have suicidal thoughts and / or attempted suicide as adolescents compared to children of mothers with lower levels of depressive symptoms.

We cannot say to what extent this connection is due to childhood experiences, genetics or other factors. But it is essential to understand some of the strategies that explain why these children are at risk of suicide later in life in order to prevent suicide among children of pregnant mothers. -mind. “

Dr Lamprini Psychogiou, Lead Author, University of Exeter

To this end, the authors examined whether the feeling of loneliness and social withdrawal reported by the 10-13-year-old teens may account for this association.

“We found that symptoms of maternal depression in the early years of a child’s life are associated with those children who report high levels of loneliness as adolescents, which, in turn, are associated with self-sufficiency, ”said Dr. Psychogiou.

“We know that social relationships in general, and peer relationships are especially important for teenagers. Feeling lonely in early adolescence can affect how a person sees life as worth living. .

“Our findings are important because they suggest that interventions aimed at loneliness in adolescence for children of mothers with depression may help reduce the risk of suicidal thoughts. or suicide attempts later in life.

“It’s important to remember that our study did not investigate cause and effect.”

Further studies are needed to measure the extent to which reduced feelings of loneliness translate into a reduction in the risk of suicide for these teens.