Chronic pain in teens major cause.

• Position: Suicide - Brief article

Chronic pain in adolescents is a risk factor for suicide ideation, according to research by the American Pain Society, Glenview, Ill. Researchers from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), Duke University (Durham, N.C.), and Lehman College (N.Y.) analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, examining the link of chronic pain with increased risk for suicide ideation and attempt, and assessed the relationship of pain, comorbid depression, and suicide ideation.

Previous studies have shown that suffering from chronic pain can be severe enough in adults to prompt patients to contemplate suicide---which is a major cause of death among adolescents. Fourteen percent of adolescents polled had considered suicide seriously and six percent attempted it.

Subjects who said they experience pain once a week for at least one year were evaluated in the study. In adolescents, headache is...