Suicidal Behaviour Protective Factors in Adolescents

CanJ Psychiatry 2015;60(2 Suppl 1):S1–S2

Guest Editorial

Suicidal Behaviour Protective Factors in Adolescents

Jean-Jacques Breton, MD, MSc 1; Réal Labelle, MPs, PhD 2

1

Psychiatrist and Researcher, Clinique des troubles de l’humeur and Centre de Recherche de l’institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal, Hôpital Rivière-des-Prairies, Montréal, Québec; Associate Professor, Département de Psychiatrie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec.

Correspondence: Centre de Recherche, de l’institut universitaire en santé mentale de l’Université de Montréal, Hôpital Rivière-des-Prairies, 7070 Boulevard Perras, Montréal QC H1E 1A4; jj.breton.hrdp@ssss.gouv.qc.ca.

2

Psychologist and Researcher, Clinique des troubles de l’humeur and Centre de recherche de l’Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal, Hôpital Rivière-des-Prairies, Montreal, Quebec; Full Professor, Département de psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec; Associate Professor, Département de psychiatrie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec.

Correspondence: Département de psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, CP 8888, succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3P8;

labelle.real@uqam.ca.

T

his supplement provides The Canadian Journal of Psychiatr y readers with 6 articles in clinical research about protective factors of suicidal behaviours in adolescents, while also considering depression and borderline personality disorder (BPD), 2 psychopathologies commonly associated with these behaviours. Wishing to disseminate their research findings in North America, authors from France and Quebec wrote their papers in English. This supplement is the result of a Franco–Quebecer academic cooperation started in 2005 at the Clinique des troubles de l’humeur of Rivière-des-Prairies Hospital (Université de Montréal). It was carried out in France with the Service de psychiatrie de l’enfant et de l’adolescent of l’Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière (Université Pierre et Marie Curie), Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire in Rouen (Université de Rouen), Centre Hospitale in Rouvray, and Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire in Amiens (Université de Picardie Jules V erne) and in Quebec with the Depressive Disorders Program of Douglas Mental Health University Institute (McGill University) and Clinique réseau jeunesse of Institut Philippe-Pinel (Université de Montréal).

This child psychiatry network dealing with suicidal behaviours and associated pathologies was funded, from 2006 to 2012, by the Commission permanente de coopération Franco-Québécoise (Franco–Quebecer cooperation standing commission). It was managed in Quebec and France by Professors Jean-Jacques Breton, David Cohen, Réal Labelle, and Jean-Marc Guilé. This network allowed for student exchanges, measure instrument sharing and validation, national and international scientific communications, and finally, a research data collection in Quebec and France, where it was facilitated by Professor Priscille Gérardin.

But why this interest for protective factors in depression, BPD, and suicidal behaviours in adolescents? Three reasons guided this search:

1) a concern for promoting a more valid approach in child psychiatry, which would target all factors affecting mental disorder, as protective factors and risk factors are closely related 1;

2) depression has become the main cause of incapacity worldwide 2;

3) and depressive disorders chronicity raises a concern about recurrence as early as illness onset, anticipating a positive impact from interventions on protective factors, although we do not yet have conclusive findings.