The Developmental Origins of Suicide Mortality

Background: Suicide rates are rising. In 2013, it was the third leading cause of death in children ages 10-14. It was the second leading cause of death for ages 15-24. Many risk factors for suicide have been found. But it is hard to predict. Evidence is growing that some factors that may make people vulnerable to suicide can be identified before birth or in early childhood. Researchers want to study vulnerability to suicide. They want to look at different kinds of development. These include prenatal, social, behavioral, cognitive, and neurologic. They will do this by linking data from the United States Collaborate Perinatal Project (CPP) to the National Death Index (NDI). The CPP data are from about 50,000 children born to mothers who enrolled in the 1960s. The CPP observed and examined about 60,000 pregnancies. Then it followed the babies from when they were born through age 7. The CPP collected data on things like family and medical history, economic status, and behavior. The NDI has data on the date and cause of death. Objective: To link data from the CPP to the NDI in order to study certain precursors to suicide. Eligibility: Offspring born to women who enrolled in the CPP in 1959-1966 and known to be alive at age 7 (Note: at the start of this study around in 2016, the youngest of those still alive would be 50 and the oldest would be 57 years old). Design: Data on children from the CPP will be submitted electronically to the NDI. It will be encrypted and data from the NDI will be deidentified to protect confidentiality. It will then be merged with existing CPP data. Researchers will analyze the data.