(12/15/2010)

Health Day News
December 8, 2010

One third of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) adolescents have attempted suicide in their lifetime, but most of them are mentally strong, new U.S. research suggests. A team at the University of Illinois at Chicago conducted psychiatric interviews with 246 ethnically diverse LGBT youth, aged 16-20, to assess them for major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), conduct disorder and suicide attempts. About 70 percent of the youth met no criteria for any mental disorders, but 15 percent met criteria for major depression and nearly 10 percent met criteria for PTSD. The study found that one-third of the youths had made a suicide attempt at some point in their life, and 6 percent had made a suicide attempt in the last year.

Read the full article: http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/647025.html

Keywords: researchers, assess, gay youth, mental health