Suicide

BACKGROUND: People with a history of self-harm are at a far greater risk of suicide than the general population. However, the relationship between self-harm and suicide is complex. AIMS: To undertake the first systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies of risk factors and risk assessment scales to predict suicide following self-harm. METHOD: We conducted a search for prospective cohort studies of populations who had self-harmed...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate long-term suicide risk in individuals with no, one or more mental disorders. METHOD: In the Lundby Study, involving a total population of 3563 subjects, mental health and suicide risk were monitored over 54-64 years. RESULTS: The long-term suicide risk in subjects with no, one, or more mental disorders was 0.3%, 3.4% and 6.2% respectively. For individuals with only depression, the risk was 6.0%, only alcohol use disorder 4...

OBJECTIVE: To study the short-term risk of suicide after nonfatal deliberate self-harm and its association with coexisting mental disorders and with the method of self-harm used. METHOD: We used linked Swedish national registers to design a cohort study with 34,219 individuals (59% females) who were admitted to hospital in 2000-2005 after deliberate self-harm (ICD-10-defined). They were followed for 3-9 years. The studied outcome was completed suicide; Cox regression models yielded hazard ratios (HRs) for suicide risk...

Suicide is a complex public health problem of global importance. Suicidal behaviour differs between sexes, age groups, geographic regions, and sociopolitical settings, and variably associates with different risk factors, suggesting aetiological heterogeneity. Although there is no effective algorithm to predict suicide in clinical practice, improved recognition and understanding of clinical, psychological, sociological, and biological factors might help the detection of high-risk individuals and assist in treatment selection...

IMPORTANCE: Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, and its rate has risen by 16% in the past decade. Deliberate self-poisoning is the leading method of attempted suicide. Unlike more violent methods, which are almost universally fatal, survival following self-poisoning is common, providing an opportunity for secondary prevention. However, the long-term risk of suicide following a first episode of self-poisoning is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To determine the risk of suicide and mortality from other causes following a first self-poisoning episode...

BACKGROUND: In the present study, we examined the relationship between cannabis involvement and suicidal ideation (SI), plan and attempt, differentiating the latter into planned and unplanned attempt, taking into account other substance involvement and psychopathology. METHODS: We used two community-based twin samples from the Australian Twin Registry, including 9583 individuals (58.5% female, aged between 27 and 40). The Semi-Structured Assessment of the Genetics of Alcoholism (SSAGA) was used to assess cannabis involvement which was categorized into: (0) no cannabis use (reference category); (1) cannabis use only; (2) 1-2 cannabis use disorder symptoms; (3) 3 or more symptoms...

The objective of this study was to determine whether affective instability predicts suicidal thoughts. Data from a Dutch panel study (N = 1686) was used. Affective instability was assessed with 7 items representing suddenly shifting moods. Suicidal thoughts were assessed by the occurrence of suicidal thoughts in the past week. Negative affect was indexed by anxious, depressed and angry moods extracted by factor analysis. Odds ratios using logistic regression modeling were calculated, adjusting for clinical and demographic variables...

BACKGROUND: It is generally thought that people with dementia are not able to attempt suicide because of impaired executive function. Little research is available about suicidal ideation among dementia patients. The present study examines 1) the sociodemographic and clinical features of dementia patients with suicidal ideation and 2) the effect of suicidal ideation on caregiver burden. METHODS: A total of 634 dementia outpatients and their family caregivers participated in this study...

Increasing research indicates that sleep disturbances may confer increased risk for suicidal behaviors, including suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and death by suicide. Despite increased investigation, a number of methodological problems present important limitations to the validity and generalizability of findings in this area, which warrant additional focus. To evaluate and delineate sleep disturbances as an evidence-based suicide risk factor, a systematic review of the extant literature was conducted with methodological considerations as a central focus...

OBJECTIVE: This study examined rates of contact with primary care and mental health care professionals by individuals before they died by suicide. METHOD: The authors reviewed 40 studies for which there was information available on rates of health care contact and examined age and gender differences among the subjects. RESULTS: Contact with primary care providers in the time leading up to suicide is common. While three of four suicide victims had contact with primary care providers within the year of suicide, approximately one-third of the suicide victims had contact with mental health services...

OBJECTIVE: Suicide among adolescents is a major public health problem. Decision-making deficits may play an important role in vulnerability to suicidal behavior, but few studies have examined decision-making performance in youth at risk for suicide. In this study, we seek to extend recent findings that adolescent suicide attempters process risk evaluations differently than adolescents who have not attempted suicide. METHODS: We assessed decision-making in 14 adolescent suicide attempters and 14 non-attempter comparison subjects, ages 15-19, using the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT)...

IMPORTANCE: Suicide is a leading cause of preventable death, especially among individuals with psychotic disorders, and may also be common among nonclinical populations of adults with subthreshold psychotic experiences. Understanding this association has the potential to critically bolster suicide prevention efforts. OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between 12-month suicidality and 12-month psychotic experiences and to test the hypotheses that psychotic experiences are associated with increased prevalence of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts during the concurrent period and with greater severity of suicidal behavior...

OBJECTIVE: Suicide risk after discharge from psychiatric inpatient care is high, particularly in the first few weeks. The aim of the study was to identify risk factors and protective factors (that is, factors associated with a reduced risk of suicide), including variation in health care received, for suicide among patients in the two-week postdischarge period. METHODS: This was a national population-based retrospective case-control study of 100 psychiatric patients in England (2004-2006), age 18-65, who died by suicide within two weeks of hospital discharge...

Animal models are formidable tools to investigate the etiology, the course and the potential treatment of an illness. No convincing animal model of suicide has been produced to date, and despite the intensive study of thousands of animal species naturalists have not identified suicide in nonhuman species in field situations. When modeling suicidal behavior in the animal, the greatest challenge is reproducing the role of will and intention in suicide mechanics. To overcome this limitation, current investigations on animals focus on every single step leading to suicide in humans...

Suicidal behaviors (SB) may be regarded as the outmost consequence of mental illnesses, or as a distinct entity per se. Regardless, the consequences of SB are very large to both society and affected individuals. The path leading to SB is clearly a complex one involving interactions between the subject's biology and environmental influences throughout life. With the aim to generate a representative and diversified overview of the different neurobiological components hypothesized or shown implicated across the entire SB field up to date by any approach, we selected and compiled a list of 212 gene symbols from the literature...

OBJECTIVE: Suicide is an important cause of premature mortality in people suffering from schizophrenia. This study aimed to identify demographic, personal, and suicide-specific features that distinguish suicide in people with schizophrenia from those with another severe mental illness (bipolar disorder) and those with neither illness. METHOD: We conducted a coroner's chart review for 2,886 suicide victims in Toronto from 1998 to 2010. Diagnoses were made based on coroner interviews with available informants including family members, acquaintances, the deceased's physician(s) and/or review of medical records...

OBJECTIVE: Recently, several epidemiologic studies reported that lithium in drinking water may be associated with lower rates of suicide mortality at the population level, but other studies failed to confirm the association. The objective of the present study is to determine whether lithium in drinking water is associated with lower suicide rate after adjustment of potential confounding factors. METHOD: From 2010 to 2013, 274 mean lithium levels of 434 lithium samples in drinking water were examined in relation to suicide standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) in 274 municipalities of Kyushu Island in Japan...

BACKGROUND: Durkheim's seminal historical study demonstrated that religious affiliation reduces suicide risk, but it is unclear whether this protective effect persists in modern, more secular societies. AIMS: To examine suicide risk according to Christian religious affiliation and by inference to examine underlying mechanisms for suicide risk. If church attendance is important, risk should be lowest for Roman Catholics and highest for those with no religion; if religiosity is important, then 'conservative' Christians should fare best...

BACKGROUND: Addiction specialists frequently find themselves faced with suicidal behavior in their addictions patients. Although many addiction treatment programs will not accept clients with recent suicidal behavior, up to 40% of patients seeking treatment for substance dependence report a history of suicide attempt(s).(1-3) Risk factors for suicide have been studied in the general population and among people with mental illness, less is known about risk factors in those with substance use disorders and co-occurring disorders...

Suicide ranks among the leading causes of death around the world and takes a heavy emotional and public health toll on most societies. Both distal and proximal factors contribute to suicidal behaviour. Distal factors - such as familial and genetic predisposition, as well as early-life adversity - increase the lifetime risk of suicide. They alter responses to stress and other processes through epigenetic modification of genes and associated changes in gene expression, and through the regulation of emotional and behavioural traits...