Between Trauma and Resilience: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder After a Suicide Attempt
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Case Report
Abstract: Suicide attempts constitute highly distressing events involving acute threat to life. However, their potential role as precipitating factors for post-traumatic stress responses remains insufficiently explored within current diagnostic frameworks. We describe the case of a 15-year-old adolescent who developed post-traumatic stress symptoms following a suicide attempt by hanging. After the event, the patient presented with recurrent nightmares, intrusive recollections, and avoidance behaviours associated with reminders of the attempt. A history of early losses and family instability may have contributed to increased emotional vulnerability. This case underscores the importance of considering traumatic stress reactions following self-inflicted life-threatening events and highlights the need for careful clinical assessment in adolescent populations. While causal inferences cannot be drawn, the observations presented may contribute to the understanding of this underexplored clinical phenomenon.
Institutions: Unidade Local de Saúde de Coimbra, Hospital de Santo André
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7213636975