Suicide and Self-Harm Studies

Suicide and self-harm research examines who is at risk, why, and what can be done to intervene — drawing on epidemiological data, clinical assessment, and psychological theory to understand behaviors that claim roughly 700,000 lives each year worldwide. Adolescents and young adults receive particular attention because suicidal behavior often first emerges during these years, making early identification of warning signs and effective prevention strategies especially consequential. The interpersonal theory of suicide, which centers on perceived burdensomeness and a sense of failed belonging, and methods like psychological autopsy — reconstructing the mental state of individuals who died by suicide — represent two influential frameworks researchers use to move from description toward explanation. Open questions remain around why many well-studied risk factors predict outcomes only weakly at the individual level, and how interventions shown to work in controlled trials can be scaled reliably across diverse clinical and community settings.

Works

106,118

Total citations

1,746,599

Keywords

SuicideSuicidal BehaviorPrevention StrategiesRisk FactorsAdolescentsPsychological Autopsy