Childhood adversity linked to suicide risk hike

Exposure to a number of adversities in childhood — such as parental psychiatric disorder, parental substance abuse or a death in the family — is associated with a substantially increased risk of suicide in adolescence and young adulthood, according to a new study published in The BMJ. Previous research has shown that exposure to adversity in childhood increases the risk for self-harm in adolescence and young adulthood, but whether childhood adversity is associated with an increased risk for death by suicide is less clear. Therefore a team of researchers based at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the University of…