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Objective: This study aimed to examine acute and chronic stressors, and perceived lack social support, and their associations with depression and suicidal ideation in adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: Deidentified data from (N = 270,153) U.S. adolescents aged 11 to 17 who completed the Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item tool (PHQ-9) in the years 2020 and 2021 were sourced from a collection of online screening tools that are free, confidential, anonymous, and scientifically validated. In addition to depression, the survey included questions about suicidality, past/chronic stressful events, and contributors to mental health problems and sociodemographic variables. SPSS software version 28 for descriptive analyses, and Mplus version 7.31 for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM), were respectively used., Results: Participants were predominantly female, White, and heterosexual, and exhibited a high prevalence of severe depression and a significant frequency of suicidal thoughts. Significant associations were found between past/chronic stressful events, and lack of social support, with suicidality and depression. Mental health stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic itself presented no significant associations with depression and suicidality and was weakly and negatively associated with lack of social support and past/chronic stressors., Discussion: These findings reinforce the notion that prior traumatic events can create vulnerabilities in the face of acute stressors, while social support can enhance resilience in adolescents. Factors that increase resilience, such as preventing traumatic events, reducing social stressors, and increasing social support, can serve as valuable guidelines for clinical and public health interventions., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Dr. Vidal receives funding from the NIDA/AACAP Physician Scientist Training Program in Substance Abuse Research, supported by NIDA Career Development Award (K12)., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Suicide is a leading cause of death globally and a serious public health concern. Childhood trauma has been found to be associated with adult suicide vulnerability. Recent research has turned attention to investigating the role of attachment in the context of the childhood trauma-adult suicide relationship. The current study investigated for the first time whether attachment influences and moderates the childhood trauma-suicidality relationship, using a daily diary design, in the general population., Methods: 481 participants completed questionnaires assessing experiences of childhood trauma, attachment patterns, and history of suicidality. 243 participants continued to a daily diary phase where measures of daily stress, defeat and entrapment were completed for 7 consecutive days., Results: Higher levels of childhood trauma were associated with a history of suicide ideation and attempt and also higher levels of daily defeat, entrapment and stress during the 7 day study. Similarly, higher levels of attachment anxiety and avoidance were associated with a history of suicide ideation and attempt together with higher levels of daily defeat, entrapment and stress. However, the effects of childhood trauma on suicide history and on daily suicide vulnerability factors were not moderated by attachment anxiety or avoidance., Limitations: The measure of childhood trauma was a retrospective self-report tool that may be influenced by memory biases., Conclusions: Childhood trauma and insecure attachment are implicated in adult suicide risk. Interventions aimed at mitigating the negative effects of childhood trauma and insecure attachment should also incorporate components that target modifiable risk factors such as defeat, entrapment and stress., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no conflict of interests to declare., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Suicidal behavior and non-suicidal self-harm in vulnerable groups and population minorities pose a challenge for suicidology, complicating the universality of suicide. The goal of this paper is to analyze the lives of young women from marginalized communities, considering their experiences with suicidality and their relational and violent horizons. Nine women who took part in the fifth wave of a cohort on mental health and violence (2005-2022) in São Gonçalo, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, were interviewed (2022) about the contexts that kept them from committing suicide despite significant emotional distress from childhood through youth. From theme-based content analysis, three categories stood out and may contribute to an intersectional, decolonial and socially relevant approach to preventing self-destructive behavior. In the first, views on self-inflicted violence, better explained by the cores concepts of "sin" and "illness" than by the general violence they experienced. In the second, indirect references to self-harm behavior, where it was recognized that the use of euphemisms reflects not only the taboo but also the silencing of and discrimination against minorities. In the third, layers of protection and turning points, where "spirituality", "occupation" and "motherhood" were interpreted as the main associations between factors of protection and resilience in the trajectories and daily lives of these young women. A closer look that acknowledges the humanity, rights and psychological distress of groups subjected to violence and discrimination not only enhances care and prevention of suicidal behavior but also deepens understanding of this human and universal phenomenon.

Importance: The rising suicide rates in the US emphasize the need for effective prevention. While telehealth has transformed access to mental health care, the impact of telehealth on suicide outcomes is unknown., Objective: To evaluate the association of virtual mental health services with individual-level suicide-related events (SREs)., Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective cohort study using broadband access as an instrumental variable assessed a national sample of Veterans Health Administration patients who received mental health care between March 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021. Participants were recently separated (ie, discharged or released from active duty) veterans who completed their active duty service between March 1, 2019, and December 31, 2020, and who received at least 2 outpatient or inpatient diagnoses related to major depressive disorder, substance use disorder, or posttraumatic stress disorder within the year before their most recent separation date. Data were analyzed May 1 to October 31, 2023., Exposure: Percentage of a patient's total mental health visits that were conducted virtually by psychiatrists, psychologists, or social workers within a calendar month., Main Outcomes and Measures: Binary measure indicating whether the patient had experienced an SRE (defined as a nonfatal suicide attempt, intentional self-harm, or suicide death) in a specific month and year as evaluated an instrumental variable probit model., Results: The sample included 66 387 data points from 16 236 unique recently separated veterans. Among these entries, 44 766 were for male veterans (67.4%), the mean (SD) age across the sample was 32.9 (8.9) years, and the sample was representative of the US veteran population. There were 929 SREs (1.4%). Virtual mental health visits comprised a mean (SD) of 44.6% (46.1%) of all mental health visits. In instrumental variable probit analyses accounting for factors simultaneously associated with use of virtual mental health care and SRE risk, a 1% increase in the probability of virtual mental health visits was associated with a 2.5% decrease in SREs., Conclusions and Relevance: Findings from this cohort study using a retrospective quasi-experimental design found that an increase in virtual mental health visits relative to total visits was associated with a statistically significant decrease in SREs, suggesting that providing virtual mental health services may reduce suicide-related outcomes.

Aims: The aim of this 4-year follow-up study was to examine the predictive effects of demographics, three types of sexual stigma, three types of self-identity confusion, anxiety, depression, family support and problematic Internet use before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on new-onset suicide risk and persistent suicide risk in young adult lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals who experienced the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan., Methods: Baseline data were collected from 1,000 lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals in 2018 and 2019. Outcome data on suicide risk were collected again in 2023. The suicide module of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview was used to assess suicide risk in terms of thoughts of death, desire to self-harm, thoughts of suicide, plans for suicide and suicide attempts in the preceding month at the initial and follow-up assessments. Baseline three types of sexual stigma, self-identity disturbance, depression, anxiety and problematic Internet use were used to examine their prediction of new-onset suicide risk and persistent suicide risk at follow-up., Results: In total, 673 individuals participated in the follow-up survey. Notably, 16.5% of the participants who had no suicide risk at baseline had new-onset suicide risk at follow-up; 46.4% of the participants who had suicide risk at baseline also had suicide risk at follow-up. Participants who were transgender ( p  = .003), who perceived greater levels of microaggression ( p  < .001), and who had greater levels of problematic Internet use at baseline ( p  = .024) were more likely to have new-onset suicide risk at follow-up. Participants who had greater levels of self-identity confusion were more likely to have persistent suicide risk at follow-up ( p  = .023)., Conclusion: Intervention strategies for reducing suicide risk in lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals should be developed with consideration of the predictors identified in this study.

Background: One of the obstacles to seeking help for suicide is its social stigma. The literature suggests that suicide knowledge could impact this stigma. The present study aims to examine levels and predictors of suicide stigma and suicide literacy among Spanish-speaking individuals from Spain and Latin America., Method: A total of 678 adults completed an online survey conducted from December 2021 to May 2022. The survey assessed sociodemographic and clinical variables, including the Literacy of Suicide Scale (LOSS-SF) and Stigma of Suicide Scale (SOSS-SF)., Results: Results showed the presence of stigmatization and a moderate level of suicide literacy. Latin Americans presented significantly more stigmatizing attitudes and lower levels of suicide literacy than Spaniards. Older age and stronger religious/spiritual beliefs were correlated with lower suicide literacy. Suicide stigma was regressed on lower suicide literacy, gender (men), stronger religious/spiritual beliefs, and lacking knowledge about how to find help. Furthermore, the region was significantly associated with the suicide glorification subscale, reporting Latin Americans' greater glorification., Conclusions: By examining these factors, we aim to foster a deeper understanding of the attitudes and beliefs toward suicide. This understanding is crucial, as it may inform the development of effective interventions and prevention strategies that are culturally sensitive and tailored to diverse populations., (© 2024 The Author(s). Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Aims and Objectives: To describe psychiatric nursing staff´s experiences of working with suicide risk assessment instruments., Background: Around the world, approximately 720,000 people die by suicide each year, of which almost 20% have an ongoing contact with specialist psychiatry during their last month alive. To identify which patients have an increased risk of suicide is a highly important task for nursing staff. Suicidal behaviour is complex and unpredictable. Nursing staff work closely with patients in everyday psychiatric care and often possess unique patient knowledge. These professionals must therefore be able to know when a patient's eventual suicidality requires further attention and efforts., Design: A descriptive qualitative study., Methods: Convenience sampling including nursing staff with more than 2 years of experience in specialist psychiatry. The data collection took place through semi-structured interviews and was then analysed according to conventional content analysis., Results: The nursing staff felt that a natural conversation is superior suicide risk assessment instruments and that experience and patient knowledge are the primary factors for facilitating a suicide risk assessment. This meant that some nursing staff rarely used suicide risk assessment instruments, although they sometimes could be a useful support in the conversation and provided a sense of personal security when documenting results., Conclusion: Suicide risk assessment instrument can be significant and helpful in certain cases, but the essential components of a suicide risk assessment consist of a conversation to understand the meaning of suicide from the patient's perspective., Patient or Public Contribution: Psychiatric nursing staff contributed to this study by sharing their experiences through interviews., (© 2024 The Author(s). Nursing Open published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Limited research exists on suicide among children aged 5 to 9 years. The objective of this study was to examine characteristics of suicide in children younger than 10 years., Methods: Data are from the National Fatality Review-Case Reporting System (NFR-CRS) for years 2006 through 2021 for children aged 6 to 9 years who died by suicide. No suicide deaths were reported in NFR-CRS for children aged ≤ 5 years. Descriptive analyses by demographics and circumstances were conducted. A thematic analysis of prevention recommendations made by child death review teams was performed., Results: From 2006 to 2021, NFR-CRS identified 78 suicide decedents aged 6 to 9 years. The largest share were aged 9 years (72%), male (74%), non-Hispanic Black (42%), and died by hanging (86%) at home (91%). School-related problems (39%), history of child maltreatment (36%), history of mental health services (30%), argument with parents (23%), and familial discord (19%) were common circumstances. Key suicide prevention themes included education for caregivers and school staff, improved behavioral health services, and implementation of school policies and programs., Conclusions: Results provide a more complete picture of suicide among younger children, improving understanding of their unique characteristics. It is recommended that program planners consider both age-appropriateness and the impacts of social (eg, racism) and structural inequities in their approaches to prevention, encompassing both community and school-based strategies. For pediatricians, results emphasize the importance of lethal means counseling, safety planning, and educating parents and caregivers on the distinct warning signs of suicide for younger children., Competing Interests: CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURES: The authors have indicated they have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

In this state-of-the-science review, we summarize the key constructs and concepts within the interpersonal theory of suicide. The state of the scientific evidence regarding the theory is equivocal, and we explore the reasons for and some consequences of that equivocal state. Our particular philosophy of science includes criteria such as explanatory reach and pragmatic utility, among others, in addition to the important criterion of predictive validity. Across criteria, the interpersonal theory fares reasonably well, but it is also true that it struggles somewhat-as does every other theory of suicidality-with stringent versions of predictive validity. We explore in some depth the implications of the theory and its status regarding people who are minoritized. Some implications and future directions for research are also presented., (Copyright © 2024 Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Importance: Changes in suicide rates after a nationwide trauma may be different from changes in psychiatric symptoms or general distress after such events. However, very few studies have examined short-term suicide-related reactions after such an event., Objective: To evaluate the short-term outcome of the events in Israel on October 7, 2023, a large-scale terror attack and unfolding war, on changes in suicidality as reflected in percentages of suicide-related calls in relation to all calls to a national mental health first aid helpline, the Israeli Association for Emotional First Aid (ERAN)., Design, Setting and Participants: The data included all interactions via the various ERAN helpline services between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2023., Exposures: The October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel., Mean Outcomes and Measures: Changes in the numbers of overall calls and suicide-related calls to the ERAN helpline using an interrupted time-series analysis., Results: A total of 602 323 calls were received by the ERAN helpline. The number of calls reflecting psychological distress in the 3 months before October 7, 2023, was 67 555 compared with 89 445 calls in the 3 months after. Analysis indicated that overall calls increased significantly on October 7 (β = 2089.16; 95% CI, 1918.97-2259.35). In addition, the daily trajectory of all calls changed significantly after October 7 (β = -22.77; 95% CI, -33.37 to -12.16), such that there was a decrease in the number of calls per day (β = -11.34; SE = 1.213; t = -9.35; P < .001). The number of suicide-related calls in the 3 months before October 7 was 1887, whereas 1663 suicide-related calls were registered in the 3 months after. Analysis showed that there were no changes in the daily number of suicide-related calls from before October 7 (β = -0.001; 95% CI, -0.005 to 0.03) or on October 7 (β = -0.22; 95% CI, -3.69 to 3.25). Therefore, the percentage of suicide-related calls decreased significantly on October 7 (β = -1.42; 95% CI, -1.92 to -0.92) and gradually increased in the following period (β = 0.016; 95% CI, 0.006-0.026)., Conclusions and Relevance: The findings of this cohort study suggest that although short-term emotional distress increased after national trauma, the percentage of suicide-related calls decreased. These results support previous studies suggesting that suicidality is not one of the immediate reactions to such traumas.

Objective: Literature on temporal patterns of suicidality among youths during the COVID-19 pandemic is growing. The present work proposes a Bayesian approach to assess temporal patterns of suicide-related behaviours among inpatient adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic., Methodology: Data referred to the first hospital discharge record with ICD9-CM codes related to suicide-related behaviour and/or suicidal ideation among adolescents aged 13-19 between 1 January 2017 and 31 March 2021 were collected in the Piedmont region, Italy (n = 334; median age: 15 years, IQR: 14-16; 80% girls). A Poisson Bayesian regression model performed on pre-COVID-19 data (2017-2020), adjusted by seasonality and stratified by sex, was adopted to provide the probability that the predicted counts exceed the observed ones in each pandemic year quarter., Results: A declining trend of suicidality was observed in April-June 2020 among both sex groups. Among females, an increasing pattern of suicidality was registered in early 2021 (January-March) compared to the pre-pandemic period., Conclusion: The present findings contributed to a growing literature on the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on adolescents' suicide-related behaviours from a gender perspective and encouraged wider adoption of Bayesian approaches as valuable tools to explore rare events and deeply enlighten open public health issues., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Suicide is a global public health issue which has far-reaching impacts on individuals, families, and wider communities. Early intervention is a core pillar of policy on the prevention of suicide related deaths. However, limited mental health literacy, and negative attitudes regarding mental illness amongst the public are a barrier to early intervention. Past research has not explored mental health literacy and attitudes regarding suicide specifically. The aim of the current study was to examine mental health literacy and attitudes towards suicide in adults. 590 adults in Ireland aged 18-80 years (M = 43.24, SD = 12.6) took part in this online cross-sectional study, completing the Mental Health Literacy Scale and The Attitudes Towards Suicide Scale. Experience of suicide deaths was common among participants. Independent t-tests indicated that males had significantly lower levels of mental health literacy and more stigmatising attitudes towards suicide than females. Young adults also had lower ability to recognise mental health difficulties than older adults. Hierarchical Multiple Regressions found that mental health literacy significantly accounted for varied attitudes towards suicide in adults, particularly willingness to communicate about suicide, and beliefs that suicide is preventable. Findings are discussed in the context of informing policy-makers who are promoting early-intervention for suicide prevention., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Physician burnout and poor mental health are highly prevalent issues within the surgical community. Authenticity, defined as the degree to which individuals align their actions with their true selves, has been identified as a potential factor facilitating positive mental health. This study explores the impact of authenticity on burnout, depression, and suicide among surgeons., Study Design: Members of the department of surgery at a large academic medical center were sent an anonymous survey between April and May 2023. The survey evaluated authenticity using Authenticity Scale, depression using Patient Health Questionnaire, burnout using Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, and suicidality using Ask-Suicide Screening Questions (ASQ) tool., Results: Of the 170 surgeons, 94 (55.3%) completed the survey. Higher Authentic Living Scores correlated with reduced burnout (r = -0.21, p = 0.047) and depression (r = -0.37, p = 0.0002). Conversely, higher Accepting External Influence (AEI) scores were associated with increased depression (r = 0.23, p = 0.023), and higher Authenticity Self-Alienation (ASA) scores were associated with increased burnout (r = 0.43, p < 0.0001) and depression (r = 0.48, p < 0.0001). Although authenticity domain scores were not significantly associated with ASQ, specific AEI and ASA questions indicated an elevated odds ratio (p = 0.029 and p = 0.010, respectively) of a positive ASQ. Authentic Living Score increased with advancement in professional rank (p = 0.007), whereas AEI (p = 0.0001), ASA (p = 0.003), depression (p = 0.014), and ASQ (p = 0.02) decreased., Conclusions: In this study, higher authenticity was associated with a lower likelihood of burnout and depression among surgeons. This study contributes valuable insights into the development of targeted intervention and support mechanisms aimed at promoting authenticity and mental health within the surgical profession., (Copyright © 2024 by the American College of Surgeons. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Strategies to detect the presence of suicidal ideation (SI) or characteristics of ideation that indicate marked suicide risk are critically needed to guide interventions and improve care during care transition periods. Some studies indicate that machine learning can be applied to momentary data to improve classification of SI. This study examined whether the classification accuracy of these models varies as a function of type of training data or characteristics of ideation., Methods: A total of 257 psychiatric inpatients completed a 3-week battery of ecological momentary assessment and measures of suicide risk factors. The accuracy of machine learning models in classifying the presence, duration, or intensity of ideation was compared across models trained on baseline and/or momentary suicide risk data. Relative feature importance metrics were examined to identify the risk factors that were most important for outcome classification., Results: Models including both baseline and momentary features outperformed models with only one feature type, providing important information in both correctly classifying and differentiating individual characteristics of SI. Models classifying SI presence, duration, and intensity performed similarly., Limitations: Results of this study may not generalize beyond a high-risk, psychiatric inpatient sample, and additional work is needed to examine temporal ordering of the relationships identified., Conclusions: Our results support using machine learning approaches for accurate identification of SI characteristics and underscore the importance of understanding the factors that differentiate and drive different characteristics of SI. Expansion of this work can support use of these models to guide intervention strategies., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Decedents with no known mental disorder comprise 5-40% of suicides, suggesting that suicide ideation (SI) and behavior may occur in the psychiatrically healthy with important implications for suicide risk screening. Healthy Volunteers (HV) and patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) provided 7 days of Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) data about SI and stressors. Longitudinal mixed effects logistic regression models compared HV and patient SI and stressors. Mixed effects linear regression models compared HVs' and patients' SI score change from the previous epoch's SI score when each stressor occurred. HVs (n = 42) reported less frequent (p < 0.001) and less intense SI (p < 0.003) than patients (n = 80), yet did endorse SI and/or SI-related items in 44% of EMA epochs, endorsing SI items in 25% of epochs with non-zero SI scores. For 7 of 8 stressors, patients reported stressors more often than HVs (all p < 0.001) responding to them with increased SI (0.0001 < p < 0.0472). HVs were relatively resilient to stressors, reporting SI increases only in response to neglect (p < 0.0147). Although SI and SAs are documented among psychiatrically healthy individuals, scientific attention to these observations has been scant. Real-time SI measurement showed that HVs' SI was less pronounced than MDD patients', but was endorsed, nonetheless. Patients were more likely to report stressors than HVs, perhaps due to greater sensitivity to the environment, and reported SI in response to stressors, which was less common in HVs. Both MDD patients and HVs most often manifested passive SI (viz, "decreased wish to live"). However, passive SI (viz, "desire for death"), may predict suicide, even absent SI per se (thinking about killing yourself). This study validates the utility of real-time SI assessment, showing that HVs endorse SI items in 11% of epochs, which implies that suicide risk screening focused on those with mental disorders may be too narrow an approach., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Objective: To investigate the mediating role of depressive symptoms in the relationship between negative life events (NLEs) and suicidality, as well as to test the moderating effect of self-esteem in the mediation model., Methods: A total of 3,003 adolescents from Han, Tibetan, and Yi ethnic groups living in Western China were included in this study. Utilizing the structural equation model, a mediation model and a moderated mediation model were constructed., Results: The presence of NLEs was positively associated with suicidality (β = 0.17, p < 0.001). Depressive symptoms partially mediated the relationship between NLEs and suicidality (indirect effect β = 0.19, p < 0.001). Self-esteem moderated both the antecedent and subsequent segments of the mediating paths of "NLEs → depressive symptoms → suicidality" and the direct relationship between NLEs and suicidality. Among adolescents with a low level of self-esteem, the mediating effect coefficient of depressive symptoms was higher at 0.18 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.14-0.23), in contrast to adolescents with a high level of self-esteem, where the mediating effect coefficient of depressive symptoms was 0.04 (95% CI: 0.02-0.07)., Conclusion: NLEs are directly associated with an increased risk of suicidality and indirectly related to suicidality by increasing the risk of depressive symptoms among adolescents. Self-esteem can moderate the mediating effect of depressive symptoms and the relationship between NLEs and suicidality. The intervention strategy for preventing suicidality among adolescents who have experienced NLEs should focus on reducing depressive symptoms and improving self-esteem., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany.)

Objective: Counselor assessment of suicide risk is one key component of crisis counseling, and standards require risk assessment in every crisis counseling conversation. Efforts to increase risk assessment frequency are limited by quality improvement tools that rely on human evaluation of conversations, which is labor intensive, slow, and impossible to scale. Advances in machine learning (ML) have made possible the development of tools that can automatically and immediately detect the presence of risk assessment in crisis counseling conversations., Methods: To train models, a coding team labeled every statement in 476 crisis counseling calls (193,257 statements) for a core element of risk assessment. The authors then fine-tuned a transformer-based ML model with the labeled data, utilizing separate training, validation, and test data sets., Results: Generally, the evaluated ML model was highly consistent with human raters. For detecting any risk assessment, ML model agreement with human ratings was 98% of human interrater agreement. Across specific labels, average F1 (the harmonic mean of precision and recall) was 0.86 at the call level and 0.66 at the statement level and often varied as a result of a low base rate for some risk labels., Conclusions: ML models can reliably detect the presence of suicide risk assessment in crisis counseling conversations, presenting an opportunity to scale quality improvement efforts., Competing Interests: Drs. Imel, Pace, Tanana, and Atkins are equity shareholders in Lyssn.io, of which Drs. Imel, Tanana, and Atkins are cofounders. The other authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests.

The cognitive model of suicide proposes that biased cognitive processes contribute to suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and initial evidence suggests that attentional bias to suicide-congruent cues may predict suicidal behavior beyond established clinical risk factors. To date, much less work has explored the potential role of interpretation biases in the development and prediction of suicide risk. The present study assessed the psychometric properties, including reliability, concurrent validity, and predictive validity, of a novel adaptation of the Word Sentence Association Paradigm (WSAP) to assess suicide-suicide interpretation biases. In a sample of 239 psychiatric inpatients, including patients with no recent suicidal ideation or lifetime attempts (n = 35), those with recent suicide attempts (n = 29), and those with recent suicidal ideation (n = 174), participants completed the modified WSAP as well as self-reported suicidal ideation and attempts for the subsequent 6 months. Although the WSAP demonstrated good reliability, evidence of concurrent and prospective validity (in terms of self-reported suicidal ideation and attempts) was limited. Specifically, the clinical groups did not differ from one another on any measure of interpretation bias, nor did suicide-specific interpretation endorsements predict concurrent or future suicidal ideation when controlling for dysphoric interpretation bias. However, suicide-specific interpretation biases were uniquely associated with a history of a lifetime suicide attempt. Future work should further clarify the extent and specificity of the relationship between suicide-specific interpretation biases and clinical outcomes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health issues such as depression and anxiety are well-documented in the literature, but its influence on suicidal patterns shows divergent results. We aim to comprehensively synthesize evidence on potential changes or stability of suicide rates during the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide., Methods: A comprehensive search of studies reporting suicide rates before and during the COVID-19 pandemic was conducted. Eligible studies reported incidences of confirmed suicides (suspected in special cases) for two time periods, before (until February 2020) and during (from March 2020 to June 2021) the COVID-19 pandemic. A meta-analysis of proportions using a random-effect model was performed to estimate the pre- and during-pandemic incidence rates of suicide with 95% confidence intervals. Differences in pre- and during-pandemic rates were formally tested using a heterogeneity test., Results: A total of 34 studies were included in the review capturing suicide data from over 40 countries and regions. The meta-analysis outputs did not indicate a significant change in suicide rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pooled suicide rate in the studied period before the pandemic was 11.38 per 100,000 (95% CI 9.35-13.42) and in the period during the pandemic was 10.65 per 100,000 (95% CI 8.61-12.68)., Conclusion: No significant change in suicide rates was observed during the COVID pandemic from a global perspective for the periods examined. A longer follow-up can provide additional insights into such suicide trends globally. Improvements in data reporting, specifically with implementation of real-time surveillance, is imperative to provide adequate suicide prevention and support., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Thinking about our own death and its salience in relation to decision making has become a fruitful area of multidisciplinary research across the breadth of psychological science. By bringing together experts from philosophy, cognitive and affective neuroscience, clinical and computational psychiatry we have attempted to set out the current state of the art and point to areas of further enquiry. One stimulus for doing this is the need to engage with policy makers who are now having to consider guidelines on suicide and assisted suicide so that they may be aware of their own as well as the wider populations' cognitive processes when confronted with the ultimate truth of mortality., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Drawing from the mental health crisis present on college campuses, we investigate the psychological processes associated with suicidal ideation among undergraduate students. Specifically, we used Terror Management Theory to investigate how individuals who have a history of suicidal ideation handle traditional death anxiety in coordination with Benjamin's theory underlying Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy to explore specific attachment-based mechanisms that may allow for exceptions to the perceived meaning of death. Results show it was the fantasy of suicide itself, including its relevance in the lives of others, that was used to alleviate fear of death among the suicidal., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

It is difficult to predict who will end their life by suicide, but often possible to prevent a suicide. To succeed with suicide prevention within healthcare, a clinical practice is required that includes more than assessing signs of psychiatric disease. Assessments of suicide risk must include the patient's own perspective and narrative, as well as life-threatening behavior and reasons to live. Cooperation with relatives is necessary to understand the whole picture, and alternative behavior in situations where life seems impossible to endure should be the long-term goal of all suicide prevention.

Objectives: To systematically evaluate the qualitative study of nurses' real experience after patient suicide, and to provide theoretical basis for reducing the influence of patient suicide on nurses and reducing the incidence of patient suicide., Design: A systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies., Methods: These databases including The Cochrane Library, CINAHL, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CMB, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP were searched by computer to collect relate qualitative researches. The retrieval time was from database established to February 2024. Joanna Briggs Institute Qualitative Research Quality Evaluation Form was used to evaluate the literature quality and Meta-integration., Results: A total of 12 studies were included and 47 results were obtained, which were summarized into 8 new categories and 3 integrated results were obtained. Theme 1: impact on nurses themselves; Theme 2: the nurse's thoughts and suggestions of patient suicide; Theme 3: coping strategy., Conclusions: Nursing managers should fully pay attention to nurses' feelings and cognitive attitudes after patients' suicide events, strengthen psychological counseling for nurses, so as to reduce the impact of patients' suicide events on nurses., Competing Interests: The authors have no funding and conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Objective: The suicide crisis syndrome (SCS), an acute negative affect state predictive of near-term suicidal behavior, is currently under review for inclusion as a suicide-specific diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM ). While the SCS has ample psychometric validation, it is critical to test its utility as a clinical tool within a real-world clinical setting. The present study investigates patterns of emergency department (ED) readmissions following implementation of an SCS-based risk assessment tool into the ED of a large, urban hospital system., Methods: Patterns of readmission rates to the ED in the 3 months following initial ED visit were evaluated for patients diagnosed with the SCS, after controlling for suicidal ideation (SI), self-harm behavior (SHB), and psychosis in the initial ED visit. All diagnoses were extracted from the electronic medical record. SCS diagnosis was based on the Abbreviated SCS Checklist (A-SCS-C), a clinician administered rating scale., Results: Analysis of the SCS was performed on 213 patients consecutively admitted to the ED 9 months post-implementation of the A-SCS-C. Over one third (79; 37%) of patients were diagnosed with the SCS, over half 111 (52.1%) presented with SI and 8 (3.8%) with suicide attempt. After controlling for covariates, SCS diagnosis reduced readmission risk by approximately 72% (AOR = 0.281) for any reason and almost 75% (AOR = 0.257) for suicidal presentations, while SI and SHB upon initial ED visit either increased readmission risk or were noncontributory. The protective effect of the SCS was consistent across levels of severity of both SI and SHB., Conclusion: Use of the SCS appears to improve clinical outcome with suicidal patients presenting to the ED., (© Copyright 2024 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.)

Objectives: To assess the short term temporal variations in suicide risk related to the day of the week and national holidays in multiple countries., Design: Multicountry, two stage, time series design., Setting: Data from 740 locations in 26 countries and territories, with overlapping periods between 1971 and 2019, collected from the Multi-city Multi-country Collaborative Research Network database., Participants: All suicides were registered in these locations during the study period (overall 1 701  286 cases)., Main Outcome Measures: Daily suicide mortality., Results: Mondays had peak suicide risk during weekdays (Monday-Friday) across all countries, with relative risks (reference: Wednesday) ranging from 1.02 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.95 to 1.10) in Costa Rica to 1.17 (1.09 to 1.25) in Chile. Suicide risks were lowest on Saturdays or Sundays in many countries in North America, Asia, and Europe. However, the risk increased during weekends in South and Central American countries, Finland, and South Africa. Additionally, evidence suggested strong increases in suicide risk on New Year's day in most countries with relative risks ranging from 0.93 (95% CI 0.75 to 1.14) in Japan to 1.93 (1.31 to 2.85) in Chile, whereas the evidence on Christmas day was weak. Suicide risk was associated with a weak decrease on other national holidays, except for Central and South American countries, where the risk generally increased one or two days after these holidays., Conclusions: Suicide risk was highest on Mondays and increased on New Year's day in most countries. However, the risk of suicide on weekends and Christmas varied by country and territory. The results of this study can help to better understand the short term variations in suicide risks and define suicide prevention action plans and awareness campaigns., Competing Interests: Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at URL www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/ and declare no support for the present study; no financial relationships with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. This study did not include plans to recruit participants and only used pre-existing datasets. All data used in this study were pre-recorded and completely de-identified., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background: Associations between violent victimisation and psychiatric disorders are hypothesised to be bidirectional, but the role of violent victimisation in the aetiologies of psychiatric disorders and other adverse outcomes remains unclear. We aimed to estimate associations between violent victimisation and subsequent common psychiatric disorders, suicidal behaviours, and premature mortality while accounting for unmeasured familial confounders., Methods and Findings: Using nationwide registers, we identified a total of 127,628 individuals born in Finland (1987 to 2004) and Sweden (1973 to 2004) who had experienced violent victimisation, defined as either hospital admissions or secondary care outpatient visits for assault-related injuries. These were age- and sex-matched with up to 10 individuals in the general population (n = 1,276,215). Additionally, we matched those who had experienced violent victimisation with their unaffected siblings (n = 132,408). Outcomes included depression, anxiety, personality disorders, alcohol use disorders, drug use disorders, suicidal behaviours, and premature mortality. Participants were followed from the victimisation date until the date of the outcome, emigration, death, or December 31, 2020, whichever occurred first. Country-specific associations were estimated using stratified Cox regression models, which also accounted for unmeasured familial confounders via sibling comparisons. The country-specific associations were then pooled using meta-analytic models. Among 127,628 patients (69.0% male) who had experienced violent victimisation, the median age at first violent victimisation was 21 (interquartile range: 18 to 26) years. Incidence of all outcomes was larger in those who were exposed to violent victimisation compared to population controls, ranging from 2.3 (95% confidence interval (CI) [2.2; 2.4]) per 1,000 person-years for premature mortality (compared with 0.6, 95% CI [0.6; 0.6], in controls) to 22.5 (95% CI [22.3; 22.8]) per 1,000 person-years for anxiety (compared with 7.3, 95% CI [7.3; 7.4], in controls). In adjusted models, people who had experienced violent victimisation were between 2 to 3 times as likely as their siblings to develop any of the outcomes, ranging from adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.7 (95% CI [1.7; 1.8]) for depression to 3.0 (95% CI [2.9; 3.1]) for drug use disorders. Risks remained elevated 2 years post-victimisation, ranging from aHR 1.4 (95% CI [1.3; 1.5]) for depression to 2.3 (95% CI [2.2; 2.4]) for drug use disorders. Our reliance on secondary care data likely excluded individuals with milder assault-related injuries and less severe psychiatric symptoms, thus suggesting that our estimates may be conservative. Another limitation is the possibility of residual genetic confounding, as full siblings share on average about half of their co-segregating genes. However, the associations remained robust even after adjusting for both measured and unmeasured familial confounders., Conclusions: In this longitudinal cross-national cohort study, we observed that those who had experienced violent victimisation were at least twice as likely as their unaffected siblings to develop common psychiatric disorders (i.e., depression, anxiety, personality disorder, and alcohol and drug use disorders), engage in suicidal behaviours, and to die prematurely. Importantly, these risk elevations remained 2 years after the first victimisation event. Improving clinical assessment, management, and aftercare psychosocial support could therefore potentially reduce rates of common psychiatric disorders, suicidality, and premature mortality in individuals experiencing violent victimisation., Competing Interests: SF is an Academic Editor on PLOS Medicine’s editorial board. HL reports receiving grants from Shire Pharmaceuticals; personal fees from and serving as a speaker for Medice, Shire/Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Evolan Pharma AB; all outside the submitted work. HL is the editor-in-chief of JCPP Advances. Shire/Takeda and Evolan were not involved in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; or preparation, review or approval of the manuscript., (Copyright: © 2024 Sariaslan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Given that the majority of suicide decedents visit primary care in the year preceding death, primary care has been identified as a key setting in which to engage patients at risk for suicide in mental health services. The objective of this research was to identify barriers and facilitators to engagement in mental health services among primary care patients at risk for suicide to inform the development of strategies to increase engagement., Methods: Seventy-four semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with primary care patients (n = 20), primary care (n = 18) and behavioral health (n = 12) clinicians, mental health intake coordinators (n = 4), and health system and clinic leaders (n = 20). Patients who had been referred for mental health services from primary care and reported an elevated score (≥ 1) on item 9 on the Patient Health Questionnaire at the time of referral were eligible to participate. Eligible clinicians and leaders were employed in a primary care or behavioral health setting in a single large health system with an integrated mental health program. Interviews typically lasted 30-60 min, were completed over video conference or phone, and were coded by members of the research team using a rapid qualitative analysis procedure., Results: Participants were primarily female (64.9%), white (70.3%) and non-Hispanic/Latine (91.9%). The most identified barriers to mental health care engagement were waitlists, capacity limits, insurance, patient characteristics, communication, collaboration, and/or difficulties surrounding travel. The most commonly cited facilitators of engagement included telehealth, integrated care models, reminders, case management support, psychoeducation, motivational enhancement, and scheduling flexibility. Concrete suggestions for improving engagement in mental health services included increasing communication between providers, streamlining referral and intake processes, providing reminders and follow ups, and advocacy for increased reimbursement for suicide risk assessment., Conclusions: Results underscore the myriad barriers patients at risk for suicide encounter when attempting to engage in mental health care in a primary care setting. Facilitators of engagement and suggestions for improving connections to care were also identified, which can inform the design of implementation strategies to improve engagement in mental health services among primary care patients at risk for suicide., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05021224 (Registered August 19, 2021)., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Schizophrenia is associated with a high mortality rate due to the high risk of suicide. However, there is still a lack of evidence on the gender-specific risk factors for suicide among people with schizophrenia. In this study, we aimed to measure the sociodemographic and clinical correlates of suicide deaths in different genders among people with schizophrenia., Methods: Data on patients with schizophrenia from 2013 to 2021 in Guangzhou, China were obtained from the National Information System for Psychosis (NISP), involving a total of 33,080 patients. Cox regression and Fine-Gray models were used to explore the sociodemographic and clinical risk factors for suicide mortality in different genders., Results: The overall age-standardized mortality rates due to suicide were 133.89 (95% CI: 124.31-143.47) per 100,000 person-years for females and 163.25 (95% CI: 152.92-173.59) per 100,000 person-years for males. To be specific, lack of medical insurance, history of non-treatment, and history of suicidal behavior was associated with a higher risk for suicide mortality for females, while an age of 35-54, being hospitalized once, and the age of onset being > 28 years were linked to lower risk for suicide mortality for males. For both genders, a lower risk for suicide mortality was observed in patients at an older age (≥ 55 years) and with a history of hospitalization more than once, and a higher suicide mortality risk was found in married patients and those residing in rural areas., Conclusion: The present study found that gender differences should be taken into account in the development of suicide prevention programs for people with schizophrenia, and future research is still required to verify our preliminary results., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Searches for "pro-suicide" websites in the United States peaked during the week a high-profile news story was published and remained elevated for 6 months afterward, highlighting the need to avoid mentioning specific sources of explicit suicide instructions in media publications., (©Nora Clancy Kelsall, Catherine Gimbrone, Mark Olfson, Madelyn Gould, Jeffrey Shaman, Katherine Keyes. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 15.10.2024.)

Background: The relationship between suicidality and resilience is underexplored among the general population. This study aimed to explore the relationship between lifetime, one-year, and one-month prevalence of suicidality (ideation, plan, attempt) and resilience in the general population., Methods: Data on suicidality, resilience, prevalence of major mental disorders, and other key psychological factors were collected from the National Mental Health Survey of Korea 2021. Interviewees comprised 5511 South Koreans aged 18-79 years. The contribution of resilience to suicidality was evaluated using Rao-Scot logistic regression, adjusting for possible confounders such as mental disorder prevalence and demographic and psychological characteristics., Results: Significantly lower resilience levels were noted among participants who reported lifetime, one-year, and one-month suicidal ideation, plan, or attempts. High resilience levels predicted no suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts in the lifetime, and no suicidal ideation and plans in the one-year and one-month time frames., Limitations: First, this study's cross-sectional design has limitations for ascertaining a causal relationship between resilience and suicidality. Second, because the number of participants who had attempted suicide in the past year and reported suicidal thoughts/attempts in the past month was small, there were limitations in the analysis of suicidality in these time frames. Third, it was difficult to rule out the mediating effects of personality and temperament on the relationship between resilience and suicidality., Conclusions: High resilience levels predicted lower lifetime and current suicidal ideation and suicidal planning in the general population. This study shows that psychological resilience is an important factor in evaluating an individual's current suicidality., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Suicidality disproportionately affects Veterans, and in 2020 the Military Health and Well-Being Project was conducted in part to study the link between risk and protective constructs with suicidality among Veterans. In the present study, we investigate the relative contribution of risk (i.e., military self-stigma, daily stress, combat exposure, substance use, traumatic brain injury, and moral injury) and protective constructs (i.e., social integration, social contribution, public service motivation, purpose and meaning, and help-seeking) with suicidality. Using cross-sectional Pearson correlation and linear regression models, we studied the independent and relative contribution of risk and protective correlates in a sample of 1469 Veterans (male: n = 985, 67.1 %; female: n = 476, 32.4 %; transgender, non-binary, prefer not to say: n = 8, 0.5 %). When we investigated protective constructs individually as well as simultaneously, social contribution (β = -0.39, t = -15.59, p < 0.001) was the strongest protective construct against suicidality. Social integration (β = -0.13, t = -4.88, p < 0.001) additionally accounted for significant reduction in suicidality when all protective constructs were considered together. When we investigated the contribution of risk constructs towards suicidality, moral injury was most strongly associated with suicidality (r = 0.519, p < 0.001), yet when studied simultaneously for their relative contribution none of the constructs accounted for a significant amount of the variance in suicidality (|t|s ≤ 1.98, ps ≥ 0.07). These findings suggest that among Veterans it is possible that social contribution is protective against suicidality and could be a possible treatment target for the prevention or reduction of suicidality among Veterans., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest There are no competing interests to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To describe and explore variation in 'pandemic-related circumstances' among suicide decedents during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: We identified pandemic-related circumstances using decedents' text narratives in the 2020 National Violent Death Reporting System. We use time-series analysis to compare other psychosocial characteristics (e.g., mental health history, interpersonal difficulties, financial strain) of decedents pre-pandemic (2017/2018: n = 56,968 suicide and n = 7,551 undetermined deaths) to those in 2020 (n = 31,887 suicide and n = 4,100 undetermined). We characterize common themes in the narratives with pandemic-related circumstances using topic modeling, and explore variation in topics by age and other psychosocial circumstances., Results: In 2020, n = 2,502 (6.98%) narratives described pandemic-related circumstances. Compared to other deaths in 2020 and to the pre-pandemic period, decedents with pandemic-related circumstances were older and more highly educated. Common themes of pandemic-related circumstances narratives included: concerns about shutdown restrictions, financial losses, and infection risk. Relative to decedents of the same age that did not have pandemic-related circumstances in 2020, those with pandemic-related circumstances were more likely to also have financial (e.g., for 25-44 years, 43% vs. 12%) and mental health (76% vs. 66%) psychosocial circumstances, but had similar or lower prevalence of substance abuse (47% vs. 49%) and interpersonal (40% vs. 42%) circumstances., Conclusions: While descriptive, these findings help contextualize suicide mortality during the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and can inform mental health promotion efforts during similar public health emergencies., Competing Interests: The authors have declared tht no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Mezuk et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The strength of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities comes from generations of Indigenous traditions, language, culture, and knowledge. These strengths have been challenged by a complex set of systemic, structural, and social factors related to historical and intergenerational trauma that affects the health of AI/AN communities. Furthermore, AI/AN population health data often are inaccurate because of analytic coding practices that do not account for multiracial and ethnic AI/AN identification and inadequate because of statistical suppression. The 2023 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey included a supplemental sample of AI/AN high school students. Coding of race and ethnicity was inclusive of all AI/AN students, even if they also identified as another race or as Hispanic or Latino, providing comprehensive data on health behaviors and experiences among AI/AN high school students nationwide. Adult caretaker engagement and school connectedness and their association with 13 health behaviors and experiences were examined, including five types of current substance use, four indicators of emotional well-being and suicide risk, and four types of violence. Pairwise t-tests and adjusted prevalence ratios from logistic regression models identified significant associations between exposure and outcome variables. Among AI/AN students, having an adult who always tried to meet their basic needs, high parental monitoring, and high school connectedness were associated with lower prevalence of certain measures of substance use, poor emotional well-being and suicide risk, and violence. Compared with non-AI/AN students, the prevalence of current electronic vapor product use, current marijuana use, attempted suicide, and experience of sexual violence was higher among AI/AN students.This report presents the most comprehensive, up-to-date data on substance use, indicators of emotional well-being and suicide risk, and experiences with violence among AI/AN high school students nationwide. The findings suggest the importance of engaged household adults and school connectedness in promoting emotional well-being and preventing substance use, suicide-related behavior, and experiences of violence among AI/AN students. Understanding the historical context and incorporating Indigenous knowledge when developing interventions focused on AI/AN youths are critical to ensure such interventions are successful in improving AI/AN health and well-being., Competing Interests: All authors have completed and submitted the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. Jonetta Mpofu reported being a board member of the American School Health Association. Lindsay Trujillo reported receiving a grant from Social & Scientific Systems, Inc. No other potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Adolescent mental health and suicide risk remain substantial public health concerns. High pre-COVID rates of poor mental health and suicide-related behaviors have continued to rise, highlighting the need to identify factors that might foster positive mental health outcomes and reduce suicide-related behaviors at population levels. Using CDC's 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, CDC analyzed the prevalence of mental health and suicide risk indicators and their associations with individual-, family-, and school- or community-level protective factors. Prevalence estimates were calculated for each of the mental health and suicide risk indicators by demographic characteristic. Prevalence ratios adjusted for sex, sexual identity, grade, and race and ethnicity were calculated to examine the association between protective factors and mental health and suicide risk indicators. Overall, 39.7% of students experienced persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, 28.5% experienced poor mental health, 20.4% seriously considered attempting suicide, and 9.5% had attempted suicide. Mental health and suicide risk indicators differed by sex, sexual identity, grade, and race and ethnicity. All protective factors were associated with lower prevalence of one or more risk indicators. Findings from this report can serve as a foundation for the advancement of research on protective factors and for the development and implementation of programs, practices, and policies that protect and promote mental health and emotional well-being among youth., Competing Interests: All authors have completed and submitted the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Social media has become a pervasive presence in everyday life, including among youths. In 2023, for the first time, CDC's nationally representative Youth Risk Behavior Survey included an item assessing U.S. high school students' frequency of social media use. Data from this survey were used to estimate the prevalence of frequent social media use (i.e., used social media at least several times a day) among high school students and associations between frequent social media use and experiences with bullying victimization, persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and suicide risk. All prevalence estimates and measures of association used Taylor series linearization. Prevalence ratios were calculated using logistic regression with predicted marginals. Overall, 77.0% of students reported frequent social media use, with observed differences by sex, sexual identity, and racial and ethnic identity. Frequent social media use was associated with a higher prevalence of bullying victimization at school and electronically, persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and some suicide risk among students (considering attempting suicide and having made a suicide plan), both overall and in stratified models. This analysis characterizes the potential harms of frequent social media use for adolescent health among a nationally representative sample of U.S. high school students. Findings might support multisectoral efforts to create safer digital environments for youths, including decision-making about social media policies, practices, and protections., Competing Interests: All authors have completed and submitted the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Aim: To validate the Nurses' Global Assessment of Suicide Risk (NGASR) in Spanish for an early detection identification of the risk of suicide., Design: A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was used for this work through face-to-face clinical interviews with each participant., Method: Following EQUATOR TRIPOD checklist, the index was translated and administered to a sample of 30 mental health experts and 151 university students. To examine the psychometric properties of the NGASR, the questionnaires also included other standardised scales such as BDI, SBQ and SEEQ. The research was conducted between 2022 and 2023., Results: The content validity index-scale (CVI-S) was 81% and the NGASR presented high reliability with a Kuder-Richardson coefficient of 0.83. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) returned a six-factor structure for the NGASR items. The results showed that 21.7% of the students assessed had an intermediate to very high suicide risk. This study also revealed that people with mental health problems and depression had a higher risk of suicide., Public Contribution: Beyond the sociolinguistic Spanish validation of the scale, it should be noted that it is carried out on a young population in a nonclinical environment, something that many authors have been requesting in their previous validations. The NGASR is a useful prevention tool in university educational settings., (© 2024 The Author(s). Nursing Open published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Importance: Youth, parents, educators, and policymakers are concerned about the potential relationship between social media use and negative mental health outcomes, including risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors., Observations: Current research shows complex and conflicting relationships between social media use and suicide risk. A key limiting factor in clarifying these relationships is a dearth of available information on contextual factors around social media use, with most research focusing only on hours or amount of engagement. Whereas there are clear associations between some types of social media use and suicide risk, there are also many opportunities to mitigate suicide risk through social media. Several methodologic and measurement issues make research challenging. Researchers have only begun to explore how specific risk factors interact with individual vulnerabilities, how social media can be used to enhance youth well-being, and whether and under what circumstances mitigation strategies can be helpful., Conclusions and Relevance: This overview identifies research gaps and methodological challenges that need to be addressed to guide intervention strategies and future policy relevant to youth and suicide risk.

Objectives: Depression and suicide rates are high among cancer sufferers. Women with breast and gynecological cancer show high levels of distress, depressive symptoms, cognitive impairment, and anxiety. Understanding suicide rates and risk factors in this population would represent a viable tool in planning tailored, prevention strategies. The objective of this study was to estimate suicide rate and identify the determinants of suicide risk in women with breast and other gynecologic cancer., Methods: A systematic research was performed in PubMed and PsycINFO from anytime to September 26, 2023. The following search strategy was used: (Gynaecol* OR Gynecolog*) AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumor OR neoplas* OR malignan*) AND suicid*. In this review, we adhered to PRISMA statement., Results: Nine papers met inclusion criteria. Women with breast or gynecological cancers showed higher suicide rates compared to the general population. Ovarian cancer was associated with higher suicide risk and suicidal ideation compared to other gynecological cancers. The extent of surgical demolition was positively associated with both. Psychological factors, such as self-perceived burden and alexithymia, might also influence suicidal thinking., Conclusions: Women with breast and gynecological cancer are at high risk of suicide. Intervention aimed to reduce burden related to psychological factors might help reducing such risk., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Importance: Few suicide risk identification tools have been developed specifically for American Indian and Alaska Native populations, even though these populations face the starkest suicide-related inequities., Objective: To examine the accuracy of existing machine learning models in a majority American Indian population., Design, Setting, and Participants: This prognostic study used secondary data analysis of electronic health record data collected from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2021. Existing models from the Mental Health Research Network (MHRN) and Vanderbilt University (VU) were fitted. Models were compared with an augmented screening indicator that included any previous attempt, recent suicidal ideation, or a recent positive suicide risk screen result. The comparison was based on the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). The study was performed in partnership with a tribe and local Indian Health Service (IHS) in the Southwest. All patients were 18 years or older with at least 1 encounter with the IHS unit during the study period. Data were analyzed between October 6, 2022, and July 29, 2024., Exposures: Suicide attempts or deaths within 90 days., Main Outcomes and Measures: Model performance was compared based on the ability to distinguish between those with a suicide attempt or death within 90 days of their last IHS visit with those without this outcome., Results: Of 16 835 patients (mean [SD] age, 40.0 [17.5] years; 8660 [51.4%] female; 14 251 [84.7%] American Indian), 324 patients (1.9%) had at least 1 suicide attempt, and 37 patients (0.2%) died by suicide. The MHRN model had an AUROC value of 0.81 (95% CI, 0.77-0.85) for 90-day suicide attempts, whereas the VU model had an AUROC value of 0.68 (95% CI, 0.64-0.72), and the augmented screening indicator had an AUROC value of 0.66 (95% CI, 0.63-0.70). Calibration was poor for both models but improved after recalibration., Conclusion and Relevance: This prognostic study found that existing risk identification models for suicide prevention held promise when applied to new contexts and performed better than relying on a combined indictor of a positive suicide risk screen result, history of attempt, and recent suicidal ideation.

Molock et al. (2023) offered an excellent scholarly review and critique of suicide assessment tools with youth of color. Although providing useful information, their article neglected essential relational components of suicide assessment, implied that contemporary suicide assessment practices are effective with White youth, and did not acknowledge the racist origins of acculturation. To improve the suicide assessment process, psychologists and other mental health providers should emphasize respect and empathy, show cultural humility, and seek to establish trust before expecting openness and honesty from youth of color. Additionally, the fact that suicide assessment with youth who identify as White is also generally unhelpful, makes emphasizing relationship and development of a working alliance with all youth even more important. Finally, acculturation has racist origins and is a one-directional concept based on prevailing cultural standards; relying on acculturation during assessments with youth of color should be avoided. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: This review aimed to examine the impact of patient suicide on health care professionals (HCPs), assess available support resources, and evaluate postvention (i.e., activities designed to support HCPs after a patient suicide) efforts., Methods: An integrative systematic review was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of patient suicide and its emotional and professional impacts on HCPs. Searches were conducted in MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL Plus, and the Cochrane Library in October 2021 and August 2022. Index terms and keywords were related to suicide, patients, and clinicians. Each article was assessed for quality with the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool., Results: Sixty-six relevant articles were identified. Across studies, the mean±SD percentage of HCPs who experienced a patient suicide was 51%±<1%. Fifty-eight (88%) articles reported on the emotional impact of patient suicide, and 50 (76%) reported on the professional impact of patient suicide. Thirty-three articles described a change in practice habits, which occurred for 51%-100% of professionals in these samples. Perceptions of support ranged widely, with 11%-87% of HCPs feeling that they received sufficient support. HCPs wanted formal support, including referral to counseling (12%-82%), more suicide prevention or postvention training (4%-70%), debriefing or supervision (41%-75%), formal case review (18%-20%), time off (12%), and legal assistance (4%)., Conclusions: HCPs can be affected by patient suicide, regardless of practice setting. More information is needed to better understand the implementation of postvention services after patient suicide and to create practical and universally deliverable support services to meet HCPs' needs., Competing Interests: The authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests.

This article aims to examine differences in suicidal narrative and suicide crisis syndrome symptoms, and suicidal ideation among those who maintained, lost, and gained employment or student status during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a cross-sectional study based on an online and anonymous self-report questionnaire. Participants were recruited through social media platforms between November 2020 and October 2021. Changes in occupational status were assessed in 2,259 individuals. The sample was divided into four groups according to work (full-time/part-time) and study status (1) maintained, (2) lost, (3) gained, and (4) unemployed. Suicide outcomes were investigated by the Suicidal Narrative Inventory, Suicide Crisis Inventory, and Columbia - Suicide Severity Rating Scale Screener version. Changes in occupational status influenced symptoms of the suicide crisis syndrome and suicidal narrative, but not suicidal ideation. Those who maintained their work, such as full-time/part-time scored lower on the total scores of the Suicidal Narrative Inventory and Suicide Crisis Inventory-2 compared to those who lost their employed status and unemployed. Our findings suggest that it is appropriate to consider changes in employed status as a mental health risk factor during pandemics.