Importance of Considering Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors in Young Children

Considering and evaluation of suicidal thoughts in children.Case report: This report introduces a five years old child who presented with the signs and symptoms of threaten to suicide and homicide by knife, restlessness, verbosity, irritability, verbal and physical aggression toward others. This child has been treated with methylphenidate, due to symptoms of attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) for a short period of time. During the preparation of this report, he was hospitalized in the children’s psychiatric ward of Shahid Beheshti Hospital of Kerman for the second time after a short interval from the first-time hospitalization. Suicidal and homicidal thoughts of this child and his attempts for suicide or homicide were possibly due to non-abstract thinking related to his age without ability to think about consequences of these actions. Suicidal and homicidal thoughts or actions should be evaluated carefully even in the children, and also the appropriate interventions should be performed to reduce these behaviors.