Suicide

For information on prevention, see Suicide prevention. For other uses, see Suicide (disambiguation).

Suicide
Le Suicidé, c. 1877
SpecialtyPsychiatry, clinical psychology, clinical social work
Usual onset15–30 and 70+ years old[1]
Risk factorsDepression, bipolar disorder, autism, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders, alcoholism, substance abuse[2][3][4][5]
PreventionLimiting access to methods of suicide, treating mental disorders and substance misuse, careful media reporting about suicide, improving social and economic conditions[2]
Frequency12 per 100,000 per year[6]
Deaths793,000 / 1.5% of deaths (2016)[7][8]
Suicide
Social aspects
Crisis
Types and methods
Epidemiology
History
In warfare
Related phenomena
By country
Organizations

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death.[9] Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and cognitive disengagement syndrome), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and substance abuse (including alcoholism and benzodiazepine use and withdrawal) are risk factors.[2][3][5][10]

Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or academic difficulties), relationship problems (such as breakups or divorces), or harassment and bullying.[2][11][12] Those who have previously attempted suicide are at a higher risk for future attempts.[2] Effective suicide prevention efforts include limiting access to methods of suicide such as firearms, drugs, and poisons; treating mental disorders and substance abuse; careful media reporting about suicide; improving economic conditions;[2][13] and dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT).[14] Although crisis hotlines, like 988, are common resources, their effectiveness has not been well studied.[15][16]

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death worldwide,[3][6] accounting for approximately 1.5% of total deaths.[8] In a given year, this is roughly 12 per 100,000 people.[6] Though suicides resulted in 828,000 deaths globally in 2015, an increase from 712,000 deaths in 1990, the age-standardized death rate decreased by 23.3%.[17][18] By gender, suicide rates are generally higher among men than women, ranging from 1.5 times higher in the developing world to 3.5 times higher in the developed world; in the Western world, non-fatal suicide attempts are more common among young people and women.[19] Suicide is generally most common among those over the age of 70; however, in certain countries, those aged between 15 and 30 are at the highest risk.[1] Europe had the highest rates of suicide by region in 2015.[20] There are an estimated 10 to 20 million non-fatal attempted suicides every year.[21] Non-fatal suicide attempts may lead to injury and long-term disabilities.[19] The most commonly adopted method of suicide varies from country to country and is partly related to the availability of effective means.[22]

Views on suicide have been influenced by broad existential themes such as religion, honor, and the meaning of life.[23][24] The Abrahamic religions traditionally consider suicide as an offense towards God due to belief in the sanctity of life.[25] During the samurai era in Japan, a form of suicide known as seppuku (腹切り, harakiri) was respected as a means of making up for failure or as a form of protest.[26] Similarly, a ritual fast unto death, known as Vatakkiruttal (Tamil: வடக்கிருத்தல், Vaṭakkiruttal, 'fasting facing north'), was a Tamil ritual suicide in ancient India during the Sangam age.[27] Suicide and attempted suicide, while previously illegal, are no longer so in most Western countries.[28] It remains a criminal offense in some countries.[29] In the 20th and 21st centuries, suicide has been used on rare occasions as a form of protest; it has also been committed while or after murdering others, a tactic that has been used both militarily and by terrorists.[30] Suicide is often seen as a major catastrophe, causing significant grief to the deceased's relatives, friends and community members, and it is viewed negatively almost everywhere around the world;[31][32] however, assisted suicide is legal in many countries and increasing in numbers.[33][34]

  1. ^ a b Preventing suicide: a global imperative. WHO. 2014. pp. 7, 20, 40. ISBN 978-92-4-156477-9.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Suicide Fact sheet N°398". WHO. April 2016. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
  3. ^ a b c Hawton K, van Heeringen K (April 2009). "Suicide". Lancet. 373 (9672): 1372–81. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60372-X. PMID 19376453. S2CID 208790312.
  4. ^ De La Vega D, Giner L, Courtet P (March 2018). "Suicidality in Subjects With Anxiety or Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders: Recent Advances". Current Psychiatry Reports. 20 (4): 26. doi:10.1007/s11920-018-0885-z. ISSN 1523-3812. PMID 29594718. S2CID 4549236.
  5. ^ a b Richa S, Fahed M, Khoury E, Mishara B (2014). "Suicide in autism spectrum disorders". Archives of Suicide Research. 18 (4): 327–39. doi:10.1080/13811118.2013.824834. PMID 24713024. S2CID 25741716.
  6. ^ a b c Värnik P (March 2012). "Suicide in the world". International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 9 (3): 760–71. doi:10.3390/ijerph9030760. PMC 3367275. PMID 22690161.
  7. ^ "Suicide across the world (2016)". World Health Organization. 27 September 2019. Archived from the original on 1 July 2004. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
  8. ^ a b Fazel S, Runeson B (January 2020). "Suicide". New England Journal of Medicine. 382 (3): 266–74. doi:10.1056/NEJMra1902944. PMC 7116087. PMID 31940700. S2CID 210332277.
  9. ^ Stedman's Medical Dictionary (28th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. 2006. ISBN 978-0-7817-3390-8.
  10. ^ Dodds TJ (March 2017). "Prescribed Benzodiazepines and Suicide Risk: A Review of the Literature". The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders. 19 (2). doi:10.4088/PCC.16r02037. PMID 28257172.
  11. ^ Bottino SM, Bottino CM, Regina CG, Correia AV, Ribeiro WS (March 2015). "Cyberbullying and adolescent mental health: systematic review". Cadernos de Saude Publica. 31 (3): 463–75. doi:10.1590/0102-311x00036114. PMID 25859714.
  12. ^ "Suicide rates rising across the U.S." CDC Online Newsroom. 11 April 2019. Retrieved 19 September 2019. Relationship problems or loss, substance misuse; physical health problems; and job, money, legal or housing stress often contributed to risk for suicide.
  13. ^ Preventing Suicide A Resource for Media Professionals (PDF). World Health Organization. Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse. 2008. ISBN 978-92-4-159707-4.
  14. ^ DeCou CR, Comtois KA, Landes SJ (January 2019). "Dialectical Behavior Therapy Is Effective for the Treatment of Suicidal Behavior: A Meta-Analysis". Behav Ther. 50 (1): 60–72. doi:10.1016/j.beth.2018.03.009. PMID 30661567. S2CID 58666001.
  15. ^ Sakinofsky I (June 2007). "The current evidence base for the clinical care of suicidal patients: strengths and weaknesses". Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 52 (6 Suppl 1): 7S–20S. PMID 17824349. Other suicide prevention strategies that have been considered are crisis centers and hotlines, method control, and media education... There is minimal research on these strategies. Even though crisis centers and hotlines are used by suicidal youth, information about their impact on suicidal behavior is lacking.
  16. ^ Zalsman G, Hawton K, Wasserman D, van Heeringen K, Arensman E, Sarchiapone M, et al. (July 2016). "Suicide prevention strategies revisited: 10-year systematic review". The Lancet. Psychiatry. 3 (7): 646–59. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(16)30030-X. hdl:1854/LU-8509936. PMID 27289303. Other approaches that need further investigation include gatekeeper training, education of physicians, and internet and helpline support.
  17. ^ Wang H, Naghavi M, Allen C, Barber RM, Bhutta ZA, Carter A, et al. (GBD 2015 Mortality and Causes of Death Collaborators) (October 2016). "Global, regional, and national life expectancy, all-cause mortality, and cause-specific mortality for 249 causes of death, 1980–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015". Lancet. 388 (10053): 1459–1544. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31012-1. PMC 5388903. PMID 27733281.. For the number 828,000, see Table 5, line "Self-harm", second column (year 2015)
  18. ^ Naghavi M, Wang H, Lozano R, Davis A, Liang X, Zhou M, et al. (GBD 2013 Mortality and Causes of Death Collaborators) (January 2015). "Global, regional, and national age-sex specific all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 240 causes of death, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013". Lancet. 385 (9963): 117–71. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61682-2. PMC 4340604. PMID 25530442.. For the number 712,000, see Table 2, line "Self-harm", first column (year 1990)
  19. ^ a b Chang B, Gitlin D, Patel R (September 2011). "The depressed patient and suicidal patient in the emergency department: evidence-based management and treatment strategies". Emergency Medicine Practice. 13 (9): 1–23, quiz 23–4. PMID 22164363.
  20. ^ "Suicide rates per (100 000 population)". World Health Organization.
  21. ^ Bertolote JM, Fleischmann A (October 2002). "Suicide and psychiatric diagnosis: a worldwide perspective". World Psychiatry. 1 (3): 181–5. PMC 1489848. PMID 16946849.
  22. ^ Yip PS, Caine E, Yousuf S, Chang SS, Wu KC, Chen YY (June 2012). "Means restriction for suicide prevention". Lancet. 379 (9834): 2393–9. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60521-2. PMC 6191653. PMID 22726520.
  23. ^ Tomer A (2013). Existential and Spiritual Issues in Death Attitudes. Psychology Press. p. 282. ISBN 978-1-136-67690-1.
  24. ^ Ritzer G, Stepnisky J, eds. (2011). The Wiley-Blackwell companion to major social theorists. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-4443-9660-7.
  25. ^ God, Religion, Science, Nature, Culture, and Morality. Archway Publishing. 2014. p. 254. ISBN 978-1-4808-1124-9.
  26. ^ Colt GH (1992). The enigma of suicide (1st Touchstone ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-671-76071-7.
  27. ^ "Book excerptise: The Four Hundred Songs of War and Wisdom: An Anthology of Poems from Classical Tamil, the Purananuru by George L. (tr.) Hart and Hank Heifetz (tr.)". Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kanpur. Retrieved 26 February 2014. Kapilar for King Pari #107 — When Vel Pari is killed in battle, kapilar is supposed to have committed suicide by vadakirrutal - facing North and starving.
  28. ^ White T (2010). Working with suicidal individuals : a guide to providing understanding, assessment and support. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-84905-115-6.
  29. ^ Lester D (2006). "Suicide and islam". Archives of Suicide Research. 10 (1): 77–97. doi:10.1080/13811110500318489. PMID 16287698. S2CID 35754641.
  30. ^ Aggarwal N (2009). "Rethinking suicide bombing". Crisis. 30 (2): 94–7. doi:10.1027/0227-5910.30.2.94. PMID 19525169. S2CID 35560934.
  31. ^ Vaughan M. "The 'discovery' of suicide in Africa". BBC. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  32. ^ "Suicide". World Health Organization. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  33. ^ Montreal JE (16 October 2024). "'It's social murder' — is Canada's assisted dying a model or a warning?". www.thetimes.com.
  34. ^ Sydney Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Josie Ensor, New York | Bernard Lagan (16 October 2024). "Where is assisted dying legal? How the rules worldwide compare". www.thetimes.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)