In extending prior research, specifically the Youth Exposed to Suicide (YES) study, which examined the impact of adolescent suicide on friends and family member and found that teenage friends of adolescent suicide victims were at significantly increased risk of developing a new-onset major depressive disorder (MDD). In 6 months after exposure to suicide, this paper examines if the risk of MDD is uniform across the 6 months after the suicide, or if new-onset MDD is more likely to occur closer in time to the exposure. The paper also tests whether pre-exposure factors increase the risk of new-onset MDD after exposure to suicide. One month incidence rates of MDD were compared between 129 adolescents who were exposed to a friend’s suicide between December 1988 and March 1991 and 145 similar aged, unexposed community controls participating in the Youth Exposed to Suicide (YES) study. Findings indicate: (1) an increase in the incidence of depression within 1 month after exposure; (2) exposure to suicide mediated the relationship between a past history of alcohol abuse and new-onset MDD; and (3) two important predictor variables, a feeling of accountability for the death and a family history of ADHD. In addition, a feeling of accountability for death interacted with a family history of MDD to increase the risk of new-onset MDD. References