Association of recent violence encounters with suicidal ideation among adolescents with depression

Objective  To describe the risk of documented suicidal ideation within a year following a diagnosis of depression and to examine how the risk of documented suicidal ideation differed by recent violence encounter status among adolescents with new depression diagnoses. Design, Setting, and Participants  Retrospective cohort study in clinical settings including outpatient facilities, emergency departments, and hospitals. Using IBM’s Explorys database containing electronic health records from 26 US health care networks, this study observed a cohort of adolescents with new depression diagnoses from 2017 to 2018 for up to 1 year. Data were analyzed from July 2020 to July 2021. Exposures  Recent violence encounter was defined by a diagnosis of child maltreatment (physical, sexual, or psychological abuse or neglect) or physical assault within 1 year before depression diagnosis. Main Outcomes and Measures  The main outcome was diagnosis of suicidal ideation within 1 year following depression diagnosis. Multivariable adjusted risk ratios of suicidal ideation were calculated for overall recent violence encounters and for individual forms of violence. Results  Among a total of 24 047 adolescents with depression, 16 106 (67.0%) were female and 13 437 (55.9%) were White. A total of 378 had experienceda violence (hereafter, encounter group) and 23 669 had not (hereafter, nonencounter group). Following the diagnosis of depression, 104 adolescents with any past-year violence encounter (27.5%) documented suicidal ideation within 1 year. In contrast, 3185 adolescents in the nonencounter group (13.5%) experienced thoughts of suicide following the diagnosis of depression. In multivariable analyses, those with any violence encounter had 1.7 times (95% CI 1.4–2.0) higher risk of documented suicidal ideation compared with those in the nonencounter group (P < .001). Among different forms of violence, sexual abuse (risk ratio, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.6–2.8) and physical assault (risk ratio, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.3–2.2) were associated with significantly increased risk of suicidal ideation. Conclusions and Relevance  Among adolescents with depression, persons who experienced past-year violence encounters showed a higher rate of suicidal ideation than those who had not. These findings highlight the importance of identifying and accounting for past violence encounters when treating adolescents with depression to reduce risk of suicide. Public health approaches to prevent violence may help to avert morbidity associated with depression and suicidal ideation.