Drug use and suicide ideation and behavior among North Carolina public school students

Suicide, now the second leading cause ofdeath amongUSyouth aged 15 to 19,1 is a preeminent concern among health professionals seeking to improve the health status of adolescents in the United States.2 The design of effective interven-tion strategies to address this problem de-pends on the identification of risk factors related to suicide ideation and behavior. Among the risk factors currently acknowl-edged to be in someway linked to adoles-cent suicide are previous suicide attempts, illness, family violence, precipitous life events, and substance abuse.3 The purpose of this study was to de-termine if a relationship existed between suicide ideation and behavior and sub-stance abuse among adolescents attending North Carolina public secondary schools and, if so, to delineate the nature of that relationship