Suicidal behavior and its relationship with other mental disturbances was assessed in an epidemiological study of 1937 Swiss adolescents aged 14 to 19 years. During the most recent 12 months, 27.5% of the females and 16.1% of the males reported suicidal ideation, while 3.3% of the girls and 1.0% of the boys reported suicidal ideation. Suicidality was significantly correlated with physical and mental impairment, alcohol and drug abuse. Of the total epidemiological sample, 475 students (24.5%) were reassessed 12 and 18 months later. Of this follow-up sample, 37 females (12.4%) and 10 males (5.6%) described suicidal ideation as a continuing problem. They revealed significantly more psychiatric symptoms than nonpersistent ideators. Three girls (1.0%) and one boy (0.6%) reported suicide attempts during the follow-up period of 18 months. Only one out of six of the ideators of both sexes received psychiatric treatment. The findings indicate that transient suicidal ideation is common in adolescents. Persistent suicidal behavior appears to be a sign of severe social and psychological disturbances and is associated with serious physical and mental impairment. There is a high risk of completed suicide for youths who demonstrate persistent suicidal ideation, and far more substantial prevention efforts should be designed and implemented to address the circumstances of these youths.

Background: There has been relatively little research on subthreshold eating disorders and factors which might promote their transition to eating disorders. Methods: A sample consisting of 1,944 Swiss adolescents of both sexes, 14–19 years of age, was investigated for eating behavior (EAT-26), psychological (SCL-90-R) and physical symptoms (GSCL-C). In addition, the relationship between eating behavior and other psychosomatic symptoms was analyzed. Results: The results revealed significantly higher scores for females than males on all except one scale of the questionnaires. Three categories of disturbed eating behavior based on the EAT scores were described: EAT 0––9 = not disturbed (77.5% girls, 93.1% boys), EAT 10–19 = moderately disturbed (14.1% girls, 5.5% boys), and EAT ≥20 = severely disturbed (8.3% girls, 1.5% boys). With regard to the three aspects, eating habits, psychosomatic symptoms and suicidality a significant correlation between disturbed eating behavior and concurrent psychological and physical symptoms was found in female but not in male subjects. Conclusions: The results emphasized that disordered eating behavior has to be seen as part of a broader psychopathological syndrome, especially in young women.

Several articles have shown that airbags are not without danger. A brief overview of the literature shows their impact on motor vehicle collisions. Several criteria of severity are listed to avoid underestimating airbag-crash patients with a "no crash" look.