Per capita income is related to suicide rates in men but not in women

Methods of attempted suicide and risk factors in LGBTQ+ youth

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to identify patterns of attempted suicide methods and risk factors in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other gender/sexual minority (LGBTQ+) youth by comparing them to non-LGBTQ+ youth.

METHODS

A total of 9281 Chinese college students completed the study, 8313 participants were included in the analysis of which 1032 were LGBTQ+ youth and 7281 were non-LGBTQ+ youth. Sociodemographic information was collected along with several scales and self-report items. This included anxiety scores using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)-7, depression scores using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9, mania score using the Altman Self-Rating Mania (ASRM), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) victimization using the World Health Organization's definition. Self-report items were used to further collect history of non-fatal self-injurious behaviors, parents' related risk factors, history of suicide attempts, and methods of attempted suicide.

RESULTS

The prevalence of attempted suicide in LGBTQ+ youth was 4.2%, which in comparison was more than four times higher than non-LGBTQ+ youth. LGBTQ+ youth 19-22 years old were at a significantly higher risk of attempting suicide than non-LGBTQ+ youth. The most common method of attempted suicide was cutting of the wrist, followed by jumping from a high height. There were some common suicide risk factors that were similar between LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ youth, such as living in a rural area, having a history of a psychiatric disorder, and having a history of non-fatal self-injurious behaviors. The associated increased risk factors for LGBTQ+ youth were having a higher score for CTQ-emotional abuse and CTQ-sexual abuse.

LIMITATION

The causality of risk factors to attempted suicide cannot be assumed due to the cross-sectional nature of the survey. Also, due to the relatively small sample size within the subgroups, we did not assess LGBTQ+ youth separately according to the different sexuality groups.

CONCLUSION

LGBTQ+ youth showed a higher prevalence of attempted suicide when compared to their heterosexual peers. Emotional and sexual abuse showed higher rates among LGBTQ+ youth, the cumulative effects of childhood trauma might explain the difficulties in developing healthy coping styles.

Suicide disparities across metropolitan areas in the US: A comparative assessment of socio-environmental factors using a data-driven predictive approach

Disparity in suicide rates across various metropolitan areas in the US is growing. Besides personal genomics and pre-existing mental health conditions affecting individual-level suicidal behaviors, contextual factors are also instrumental in determining region-/community-level suicide risk. However, there is a lack of quantitative approach to model the complex associations and interplays of the socio-environmental factors with the regional suicide rates. In this paper, we propose a holistic data-driven framework to model the associations of socio-environmental factors (demographic, socio-economic, and climate) with the suicide rates, and compare the key socio-environmental determinants of suicides across the large and medium/small metros of the vulnerable US states, leveraging a suite of advanced statistical learning algorithms. We found that random forest outperforms all the other models in terms of both in-sample goodness-of-fit and out-of-sample predictive accuracy, which is then used for statistical inferencing. Overall, our findings show that there is a significant difference in the relationships of socio-environmental factors with the suicide rates across the large and medium/small metropolitan areas of the vulnerable US states. Particularly, suicides in medium/small metros are more sensitive to socio-economic and demographic factors, while that in large metros are more sensitive to climatic factors. Our results also indicate that non-Hispanics, native Hawaiian or Pacific islanders, and adolescents aged 15-29 years, residing in the large metropolitan areas, are more vulnerable to suicides compared to those living in the medium/small metropolitan areas. We also observe that higher temperatures are positively associated with higher suicide rates, with large metros being more sensitive to such association compared to that of the medium/small metros. Our proposed data-driven framework underscores the future opportunities of using big data analytics in analyzing the complex associations of socio-environmental factors and inform policy actions accordingly.

Influential Path of Social Risk Factors toward Suicidal Behavior-Evidence from Chinese Sina Weibo Users 2013-2018

(1) Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine suicidal risk factors, the relationship and the underlying mechanism between social variables and suicidal behavior. We hope to provide empirical support for the future suicide prevention of social media users at the social level. (2) Methods: The path analysis model with psychache as the mediate variable was constructed to analyze the relationship between suicidal behavior and selected social macro variables. The data for our research was taken from the Chinese Suicide Dictionary, Moral Foundation Dictionary, Cultural Value Dictionary and National Bureau of Statistics. (3) Results: The path analysis model was an adequate representation of the data. With the mediator psychache, higher authority vice, individualism, and disposable income of residents significantly predicted less suicidal behavior. Purity vice, collectivism, and proportion of the primary industry had positive significant effect on suicidal behavior via the mediator psychache. The coefficients of harm vice, fairness vice, ingroup vice, public transport and car for every 10,000 people, urban population density, gross domestic product (GDP), urban registered unemployment rate, and crude divorce rate were not significant. Furthermore, we applied the model to three major economic development belts in China. The model’s result meant different economic zones had no influence on the model designed in our study. (4) Conclusions: Our evidence informs population-based suicide prevention policymakers that incorporating some social factors like authority vice, individualism, etc. can help prevent suicidal ideation in China.

Contextual Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Adolescent Suicide Attempts: A Multilevel Investigation

Multilevel research on whether and how contextual socioeconomic disadvantage affects adolescent suicidal behaviors is scarce. Using data from the first two waves (1994/95 and 1996) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 13,335; 49.63% girls; M_age = 15.02 years), this study examined (1) the association between area-level socioeconomic disadvantage and adolescent suicide attempts over and above individual-level socioeconomic factors, (2) the moderating role of gender, and (3) the mediating roles of contextually relevant stressors and available psychosocial resources. The results revealed that area-level socioeconomic disadvantage increased the risk of attempting suicide even after adjusting for individual-level socioeconomic status, especially for boys. Consistent with the stress process perspective, reports of exposure to violence and lack of safety explain this contextual effect. National suicidal behavior prevention strategies across the U.S. should recognize the strong association with the socioeconomic context, along with individual-level risk factors.

Mental health of the male adolescent and young man: the Copenhagen statement

BACKGROUND

Male adolescents and young men benefit when their mental health care is specialized to match their unique gendered and developmental needs. Sensitivity to the social circumstances of this population is important; additionally, the emerging ability to tailor care through knowledge gleaned from the intersection of psychiatry, neurology, and endocrinology informs care.

DATA SOURCES

This article summarized the views of six experts in the area of the adolescent and young adult male mental health. These experts were select members of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry's Task Force on Men's Mental Health. They convened to present two symposia on the topic of men's mental health at the 13th World Congress of Biological Psychiatry (WCBP) in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2017.

RESULTS

In these works, a special focus is paid to addictive disorders, disruptive behavior disorders, aggression, and brain development. Collectively, the authors present an argument for the merits of a male-specific model of mental health care to advance the overall well-being of this population.

CONCLUSIONS

Men's mental health should be recognized as a social issue as much as a medical issue, with special attention paid to problems such as unemployment, familial disruption, and substance abuse. These problems, and especially those of major societal impact including violence and suicide which are much more frequently the product of male youth and men, should have more male-tailored options for service provision that respond to men's mental health needs.

Are Suicide Rates Related to the Psychiatrist Density? A Cross-National Study

Introduction

Most suicide victims have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder. Treatment of psychiatric disorders should reduce the number of suicides. Higher psychiatrist-per-­population ratio increases the opportunity for contact between the patient and psychiatrist. It is reasonable to hypothesize that the higher psychiatrist density (PD) is associated with lower suicide rates. The aim of this study is to examine the association between suicide rates and the PD in the European Union countries. These countries are economically and culturally connected and located on the same continent. This is an attempt to study a relatively homogenous sample.

Methods

Correlations were computed to examine relationships between age-­standardized suicide rates in women and men, the PD, and the gross national income (GNI) per capita. Partial correlations were used to examine the relation between the PD and age-standardized suicide rates in women and men controlling for the GNI per capita.

Results

Higher suicide rates in women correlated with the higher PD. Controlling for the GNI per capita, the PD positively correlated with suicide rates both in women and in men. There was a trend toward a negative correlation between the GNI per capita and suicide rates in men. The PD was positively associated with the GNI per capita.

Conclusion

Probably, higher suicide rates directly and/or indirectly affect the decisions made by policy- and lawmakers regarding mental health services and how many psychiatrists need to be trained. The results of this study should be treated with caution because many confounding variables are not taken into account.

Relationship of suicide rates to economic variables in Europe: 2000-2011

BACKGROUND

It is unclear whether there is a direct link between economic crises and changes in suicide rates.

AIMS

The Lopez-Ibor Foundation launched an initiative to study the possible impact of the economic crisis on European suicide rates.

METHOD

Data was gathered and analysed from 29 European countries and included the number of deaths by suicide in men and women, the unemployment rate, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, the annual economic growth rate and inflation.

RESULTS

There was a strong correlation between suicide rates and all economic indices except GPD per capita in men but only a correlation with unemployment in women. However, the increase in suicide rates occurred several months before the economic crisis emerged.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, this study confirms a general relationship between the economic environment and suicide rates; however, it does not support there being a clear causal relationship between the current economic crisis and an increase in the suicide rate.

Suicide triggers as sex-specific threats in domains of evolutionary import: Negative correlation between global male-to-female suicide ratios and average per capita gross national income

From an evolutionary perspective, suicide is a paradoxical phenomenon given its fatal consequences on one's reproductive fitness. That fact notwithstanding, evolutionists have typically used kin and group selection arguments in proposing that suicide might indeed be viewed as an adaptive behavioral response. The current paper posits that in some instances, suicide might be construed as the ultimate maladaptive response to "crushing defeats" in domains of great evolutionary import (e.g., mating). Specifically, it is hypothesized that numerous sex-specific triggers of suicide are universally consistent because they correspond to dire sex-specific attacks on one's reproductive fitness (e.g., loss of occupational status is much more strongly linked to male suicides). More generally, it is proposed that many epidemiological aspects of suicide are congruent with Darwinian-based frameworks. These include the near-universal finding that men are much more likely to commit suicide (sexual selection theory), the differential motives that drive men and women to commit suicide (evolutionary psychology), and the shifting patterns of suicide across the life span (life-history theory). Using data from the World Health Organization and the World Bank, several evolutionary-informed hypotheses, regarding the correlation between male-to-female suicide ratios and average per capita Gross National Income, are empirically tested. Overall, the findings are congruent with Darwinian-based expectations namely as economic conditions worsen the male-to-female suicide ratio is exacerbated, with the negative correlation being the strongest for the "working age" brackets. The hypothesized evolutionary outlook provides a consilient framework in comprehending universal sex-specific triggers of suicide. Furthermore, it allows suicidologists to explore new research avenues that might remain otherwise untapped if one were to restrict their research interests on the identification of proximate causes of suicide. Global clinical and epidemiological data emphasizing other universally robust triggers of suicide would afford additional support for the postulated framework.