The Relationship between Suicide Risk

For decades, investigators have sought to explain the increasing rates of suicide among adolescents and to identify remediable predisposing factors. Despite substantial progress, the possibility has been raised that existing research has overlooked important clues to the problem. Specifically, the contribution of bisexual and homosexual youth to suicide deaths has been a matter of recent interest and controversy. '(pp7-14) Eight peer-reviewed studies2-9 have found consistently high rates of attempted suicide, in the range of20% to 42%, in volunteer samples of gay youths. Three of these works6'8'9 included females, who were found to have similar or somewhat higher rates than males. Some authors have speculated that gay youth are two or three times more likely to attempt suicide than other young people, composing up to 30% of youth suicide annually.'0 Others have found the rate to be as low as 2.5% among completed youth suicides." To date, however, no studies have compared suicide risk in representative samples of heterosexual and homosexual youths. As a consequence, there is no population-based evidence that sexual orientation and suicide risk are linked in any direct or indirect manner.'2 Nonetheless, some jurisdictions have found the existing evidence sufficiently compelling to enact statewide measures to protect gay students in secondary schools.'3 Understanding the relationship between sexual orientation and suicide risk might illuminate the epidemiological trends in self-inflicted injury and death, contribute to a recognition of vulnerable youth, and lead to preventive interventions. Therefore, this study was undertaken to examine the association between sexual orientation and suicide risk in a population-based sample of adolescents. On the basis of prior research,29 we expected to find an association between bisexuality/homosexuality and suicide risk for males and similarly high rates of suicide risk among bisexual/homosexual males and bisexual/homosexual females.