O'Connor RC, Worthman CM, Abanga M, Athanassopoulou N, Boyce N, Chan LF, Christensen H, Das-Munshi J, Downs J, Koenen KC, Moutier CY, Templeton P, Batterham P, Brakspear K, Frank RG, Gilbody S, Gureje O, Henderson D, John A, Kabagambe W, Khan M, Kessler D, Kirtley OJ, Kline S, Kohrt B, Lincoln AK, Lund C, Mendenhall E, Miranda R, Mondelli V, Niederkrotenthaler T, Osborn D, Pirkis J, Pisani AR, Prawira B, Rachidi H, Seedat S, Siskind D, Vijayakumar L, and Yip PSF
Globally, too many people die prematurely from suicide and the physical comorbidities associated with mental illness and mental distress. The purpose of this Review is to mobilise the translation of evidence into prioritised actions that reduce this inequity. The mental health research charity, MQ Mental Health Research, convened an international panel that used roadmapping methods and review evidence to identify key factors, mechanisms, and solutions for premature mortality across the social-ecological system. We identified 12 key overarching risk factors and mechanisms, with more commonalities than differences across the suicide and physical comorbidities domains. We also identified 18 actionable solutions across three organising principles: the integration of mental and physical health care; the prioritisation of prevention while strengthening treatment; and the optimisation of intervention synergies across social-ecological levels and the intervention cycle. These solutions included accessible, integrated high-quality primary care; early life, workplace, and community-based interventions co-designed by the people they should serve; decriminalisation of suicide and restriction of access to lethal means; stigma reduction; reduction of income, gender, and racial inequality; and increased investment. The time to act is now, to rebuild health-care systems, leverage changes in funding landscapes, and address the effects of stigma, discrimination, marginalisation, gender violence, and victimisation., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests AKL reports grants from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, US National Institute of Justice, US National Institute of Health, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and WK Kellogg Foundation. AKL reports reviewer honoraria from the US National Institute of Health. ARP is an equity owner of SafeSide Prevention, which receives fees for consultation and educational programmes provided to health, military, and government organisations. SafeSide pays royalties to the University of Rochester, NY, USA, which acknowledges this financial interest. CMW is a Trustee and Science Council Member of MQ Mental Health Research and board member of Healthy Brains, Healthy Lives, but receives no remuneration for these roles. CMW reports grants from the Foundation for Psychocultural Research, consulting fees from the Center for the Developing Adolescent and Health Policy Research Scholars Program, and has received occasional fees and travel reimbursement for invited addresses from the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine (University of Zurich), Senckenberg Institute (Frankfurt), Center for the Developing Adolescent, and Foundation for Psychocultural Research. CYM receives royalties from Cambridge University Press and has received occasional consultancy fees from Merck and Otsuka. DK reports grants from the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the UK Medical Research Council, and has received an honorarium for an invited address from Royal College of General Practitioners. DO is supported by the University College London Hospitals NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and the NIHR North Thames Applied Research Collaboration. These funders had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Health Service, the NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care. JD has received payments for their role as a lived experience expert from MQ Mental Health Research. JP reports grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council. KCK reports grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Harvard Center on the Developing Child, the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the National Institute of Health, One Mind, the Anonymous Foundation, and Cohen Veterans Bioscience. KCK has received payments as a consultant for Baker Hostetler, Discovery Vitality, and the Department of Justice; as external reviewer for the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation, the University of Cape Town, and Capita Ireland. KCK has received occasional fees for invited addresses from the American Psychological Association, European Central Bank, Sigmund Freud University—Milan, Cambridge Health Alliance, and Coverys. KCK receives royalties from Guilford Press and Oxford University Press. LFC is the third Vice President of the International Association for Suicide Prevention and is a permanent member of the Malaysian Technical Working Group for Suicide Prevention, but receives no remuneration for these roles. LFC reports a grant from the Centre for Pesticide Suicide Prevention (University of Edinburgh), has received honorarium from Johnson & Johnson as a consultant and speaker, and, through her institution, has received industry-sponsored medication sampling (compassionate patient programme) for clinical use for medication samples of esketamine (Johnson & Johnson), brexpiprazole (Lundbeck), Abilify Maintena (Lundbeck), and Trinza (Johnson & Johnson). LV reports grants from Grand Challenges of Canada. OJK is a member of the Samaritans Research Ethics Board, but receives no reimbursement for this role. OJK receives an annual honorarium for role as an Open Science Advisor to the journal Clinical Psychological Science paid to KU Leuven. OJK reports grants from Research Foundation Flanders and the King Baudouin Foundation (Belgium) outside the submitted work and receives travel and accommodation support for attending meetings in her capacity as a commissioner for the Lancet Commission on Self-Harm. PT is the founder of the charity The William Templeton Foundation for Young People's Mental Health and is employed by, and is a director of, IfM Engage, which was contracted by MQ Mental Health Research to provide the roadmapping services conducted as part of this project. PB reports grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Medical Research Future Fund, and Australian Department of'Veterans' Affairs. RM is a member of the Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute and reports grants from the National Institute of Mental Health. RCO'C is a Trustee and Science Council Member of MQ Mental Health Research, President of the International Association for Suicide Prevention, co-Chair of the Academic Advisory Group to the Scottish Government's National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group, and a board member of the International Academy of Suicide Research. RCO'C was a member of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's guideline group for the management of self-harm and reports grants from the Medical Research Foundation, the Mindstep Foundation, Chief Scientist Office, Medical Research Council, Public Health Scotland, Scottish Government, NIHR, Shout 85258, Scottish Association for Mental Health, Zoetis Foundation, Jonathan's Voice, ADHD UK, and the Barfil Charitable Trust. All other authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)