The authors designed a pilot study to test if exposure to child abuse or neglect is associated with suicidal behavior in adolescence. Each of 159 adolescents who had attempted suicide was age- and sex-matched with two comparison subjects who had been treated for medical conditions unrelated to suicide attempts. The registry of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services was searched for the names of the subjects and comparison subjects. For both sexes prior contact with the Department of Social Services was three to six times more likely for probands than for the comparison subjects.

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