To prevent suicidality (suicide risk; suicide prevention), attention must be paid to reducing individual risk factors.
Behavioral risk factors
- Use of stimulants
- Alcohol abuse (50% of all cases)
- Drug use
- Cannabis* (hashish and marijuana)
- Parental use → increased risk of child suicide attempt.
- Use by child/adolescent before age 18 increases risk of later depression and suicides
- Cannabis* (hashish and marijuana)
- Psycho-social situation
- Chronic stress
- Hopelessness (e.g., symptom of major depressive episode)
- Loss of self-esteem
- Overwhelming feelings of guilt
Disease-related risk factors [intensive medical care and therapy].
- Mental illness
- Depression
- Bipolar disorder
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
- Anxiety disorders
- Burnout syndrome
- Panic disorder/panic attack
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Schizophrenia – belongs to the group of psychoses.
- Social phobia
- Severe eating disorders
- Anorexia nervosa (anorexia nervosa)
- Bulimia nervosa (binge eating disorder)
- Severe physical/chronic illness
- Chronic fatigue syndrome (CMS)
- Commotio cerebri (concussion).
- Epilepsy (seizures)
- Multiple sclerosis (MS)
- Severe insomnia (sleep disturbances/especially sleep-through disturbances) → administration of a sleep aid (8-week treatment with zolpidem resulted in greater reduction in suicidal ideation compared with placebo)
- Post-apoplex (stroke).
- Psoriasis (psoriasis)
- Pain, excruciating
- Self-injury: self-injurious behavior (SVV) or autoaggressive behavior.
- Acute suicide risk in the first month after self-injury increased by about 180 times
- Risk of death due to acute alcohol or drug intoxication 34 times higher than in the control group
- Final-stage tumor disease (end-stage, last phase of progressive disease before death occurs)
Prevention factors (protective factors)
- Lithium in beverage water: geographic regions with higher natural concentrations of lithium in drinking water are associated with lower suicide mortality rates (death rates).
- Block suicide pathways: firearm restriction, analgesic package size reduction, access barriers to suicide hotspots (e.g., Golden Gate Bridge)
- Brief intervention – even a single professional contact followed by regular telephone contacts reduces the risk of suicide attempts by 31%. In the intervention group, 78 fewer suicides occurred than in the control groups of comparable size. The meta-analysis is based on 4270 participants.
- Psychiatric treatment: adequate therapy for the above mental disorders.
- Family-based therapies and crisis intervention for suicidal adolescents.
