Mental disorders, particularly depressive disorders, anxiety disorders and substance use, are associated with suicide and suicidal behaviour not only in adults, but also in adolescents. In adolescents, suicide is the second most common cause of death, and up to 30% of all adolescents have suicidal thoughts or behaviours. Suicide rates increase steeply from childhood to adolescence. Recognised as an important public health problem by the World Health Organization (WHO), suicide in youth is a rare but tragic event, with severe implications for the families and friends concerned. These factors should be considered when designing prevention programmes for youth suicide.
We conclude that familial and socioeconomic factors including type of household, birth order and urbanity are associated with youth suicide in Switzerland. There was no clear evidence for an increase or decrease over calendar time. Hanging was the most common method in boys, and railway suicides were most frequent in girls. Being a boy, living in a single parent household, being an only or middle-born child, and living in rural regions were factors associated with a higher rate of suicide. A total of 2.396 million adolescents were included and 592 suicides were recorded, corresponding to a rate of 3.7 per 100,000. We identified suicides in adolescents aged 10–18 years from 1991 to 2013. The SNC is a longitudinal study of the whole Swiss resident population, based on linkage of census and mortality records. We examined sociodemographic factors associated with suicide in Swiss adolescents and analysed time trends in youth suicide in the Swiss National Cohort (SNC). Suicide in adolescents is the second most common cause of death in this age group and an important public health problem.