Abstract
Background
Psychiatric disorders are reported to be present in 80% to 90% of suicide deaths in high-income countries (HIC), but this association is less clear in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). There has been no previous systematic review of this issue in LMIC. The current study aims to estimate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in individuals with suicidal behaviour in LMIC.
Methods and findings
PubMed, PsycINFO, and EMBASE searches were conducted to identify quantitative research papers (any language) between 1990 and 2018 from LMIC that reported on the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in suicidal behaviour. We used meta-analytic techniques to generate pooled estimates for any psychiatric disorder and specific diagnosis based on International classification of disease (ICD-10) criteria. A total of 112 studies (154 papers) from 26 LMIC (India: 25%, China: 15%, and other LMIC: 60%) were identified, including 18 non-English articles. They included 30,030 individuals with nonfatal suicidal behaviour and 4,996 individuals who had died by suicide. Of the 15 studies (5 LMIC) that scored highly on our quality assessment, prevalence estimates for psychiatric disorders ranged between 30% and 80% in suicide deaths and between 3% and 86% in those who engaged in nonfatal suicidal behaviour. There was substantial heterogeneity between study estimates. Fifty-eight percent (95% CI 46%–71%) of those who died by suicide and 45% (95% CI 30%–61%) of those who engaged in nonfatal suicidal behaviour had a psychiatric disorder. The most prevalent disorder in both fatal and nonfatal suicidal behaviour was mood disorder (25% and 21%, respectively). Schizophrenia and related disorders were identified in 8% (4%–12%) of those who died by suicide and 7% (3%–11%) of those who engaged in nonfatal suicidal behaviour. In nonfatal suicidal behaviour, anxiety disorders, and substance misuse were identified in 19% (1%–36%) and 11% (7%–16%) of individuals, respectively. This systematic review was limited by the low number of high-quality studies and restricting our searches to databases that mainly indexed English language journals.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest a possible lower prevalence of psychiatric disorders in suicidal behaviour in LMIC. We found very few high-quality studies and high levels of heterogeneity in pooled estimates of psychiatric disorder, which could reflect differing study methods or real differences. There is a clear need for more robust evidence in order for LMIC to strike the right balance between community-based and mental health focussed interventions.
Duleeka Knipe and co-workers study associations between psychiatric disorders and suicidal behaviour in low- and middle-income countries.
Author summary
Why was the study done?
Approximately 800,000 people die by suicide each year, with 75% of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).
Psychiatric disorder is thought to be associated with 80% to 90% of those who engage in suicidal behaviour in high-income countries (HIC), but this association is less clear in LMIC.
A better understanding is needed of this association in LMIC to ensure effective and appropriate allocation of limited resources.
What did the researchers do and find?
We searched the existing literature for studies conducted in LMIC that estimated the proportion of individuals who engaged in suicidal behaviour with psychiatric disorders and found 112 studies from 26 countries (mainly from China and India).
Even in the higher quality studies, there was wide variability in the proportion of psychiatric disorders in fatal (30%–80%) and nonfatal (3%–86%) suicidal behaviour, but on average, 58% of those who died by suicide and 45% of those who engaged in nonfatal suicidal behaviour had a psychiatric disorder.
Mood disorders were the most prevalent disorder identified in both fatal and nonfatal suicidal behaviour.
What do these findings mean?
There were considerable differences in the estimates of psychiatric disorder between studies. This may reflect differences in the way studies were carried out or real differences, but there were too few high-quality studies to estimate the prevalence by individual country. More high-quality research is needed.
Psychiatric disorders may be less common in suicidal behaviour in LMIC than in HIC. Although treating psychiatric illness is important, the treatment and prevention of suicidal behaviour should include a wider range of activities.
Introduction
At least 800,000 people die by suicide every year, with over three-quarters of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) [1]. Suicidal behaviour is complex with a wide range of contributing factors [2], but it is clear that psychiatric disorders are important in aetiology. The evidence, which largely originates from high-income countries (HIC), estimates that 80% to 90% of people who die by suicide [3–5] and 92% of individuals who attempt suicide [6] have an associated psychiatric disorder. The treatment of these disorders is likely to contribute to suicide prevention efforts.
Psychiatric disorders may play a less prominent role in suicidal behaviour in LMIC, and it has also been argued that the behaviour itself is different in LMIC versus HIC settings [7]. Studies from LMIC provide wide-ranging estimates for the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in suicidal behaviour, ranging between 10% to 88% [8–10]. A better understanding of the association between psychiatric disorders and suicidal behaviour is important to ensure that the limited resources in LMIC are directed to the appropriate support services.
To our knowledge, there have been no previous meta-analyses of the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in suicidal behaviour focussed specifically in LMIC. Previous reviews on this topic have focussed on individual regions only [11], excluded non-English language papers [4,6], or included papers that assessed lifetime psychiatric morbidity as opposed to disorders associated with the suicidal act [3]. None of the previous reviews have considered both fatal and nonfatal suicidal behaviour. In this systematic review, we aimed to estimate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in individuals who engaged in suicidal behaviour in LMIC by synthesising existing observational evidence. We estimate the prevalence of both overall psychiatric disorders and specific diagnoses based on the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
Methods
Protocol and registration
Our systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines (S1 PRISMA Checklist) and the protocol registered in advance (PROSPERO 2018 CRD42018087851; see S1 Protocol).
Eligibility criteria
General population samples from LMIC were included in this review [12]. No age or sex exclusions were made. We included papers that reported on the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in individuals who engaged in fatal and nonfatal suicidal behaviour. Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is still a relatively new and understudied area in LMIC, and most studies did not distinguish between NSSI and suicide attempts; for this reason, we did not exclude studies based on suicidal intent nor consider NSSI separately. We included papers that reported on a psychiatric diagnosis based on (i) research diagnostic criteria (i.e., a structured interview), (ii) clinicians’ diagnosis, or (iii) a validated scale with a defined cut-off for case-ness (e.g., Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9]—depression indicated if a score of ≥10 reported). We excluded studies that only reported on either lifetime suicidal behaviour or lifetime psychiatric morbidity because the temporal relationship was then uncertain. We were most interested in the role of psychiatric morbidity as a proximal antecedent to suicide in LMIC rather than an enduring risk factor. An important issue clinically is how many people are suffering with a psychiatric disorder at the time of death. A psychiatric illness diagnosed at some point in the past could have been incidental and not related to the suicidal behaviour. If a study reported on a clinical diagnosis, it was assumed to be the diagnosis at the time of event if not otherwise stated. Studies that reported on a single method of suicidal behaviour were included in the review but were not considered as a high-quality study (see below) because of threats to generalisability. No language restrictions were applied, and papers published between 1 January 1990 and 25 Febuary 2018 were included. We judged studies published prior to 1990 to be of less relevance given the changing global context of suicide [1]. This date also meant that we were not considering diagnoses based on earlier versions of the main classification systems for psychiatric diagnoses (ICD and DSM). Most studies from LMIC that used a structured interview (our gold standard) used a structured clinical interview for DSM (SCID), which was first published in 1990 [13]. If a single study was reported in multiple reports, the report with the most comprehensive data and complete case series was used to extract data.
Information sources
We searched Medline, PsycINFO, and EMBASE using a combination of key search terms relating to our 3 primary concepts: (i) psychiatric morbidity, (ii) suicidal behaviour (fatal and nonfatal), and (iii) LMIC. The search terms used in Medline are shown in S1 Appendix. Reference searches were conducted on all included papers and relevant reviews.
Study selection
Titles and abstracts were screened by a single reviewer and a random sample of 30% of articles were independently screened by a second reviewer. The interrater reliability between the reviewers was good (Kappa = 0.75; 95% CI 0.69–0.80) with the initial reviewer being more inclusive. Full-texts were screened independently by 2 members of the research team, and a third reviewer resolved any disagreements; the third reviewer also reviewed all excluded full-text papers. All screening was done using the web application Rayyan [14]. All non-English language papers were screened and data extracted with the help of a native speaker.
Data extraction
Using a structured data extraction proforma 2 review authors independently extracted data on study design, participants, exposure, and outcome details. When papers presented prevalence estimates for both fatal and nonfatal suicidal behaviour separately, each outcome was included as a separate study (e.g., [15]). If a study reported on both fatal and nonfatal suicidal behaviour but did not provide separate estimates of the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity, the majority outcome (fatal/nonfatal) was used to class the study as either being a study of fatal or nonfatal suicidal behaviour [16–18]. We extracted prevalence estimates for each diagnosis reported in a single paper; this therefore means that a single study contributes more than one prevalence estimate in this review.
Quality assessment
We used a similar concept for assessing data quality as that employed by the Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS) for assessing nonrandomised studies [19]. The NOS does not have a scale for assessing case series; therefore we created a quality assessment tool that assessed potential sources of selection bias and exposure ascertainment. Quality was assessed by 2 independent reviewers. A study was classed as being of high quality if it recruited a consecutive series of suicidal behaviour cases with no threats to generalisability and if the psychiatric diagnosis was reached through a structured interview. The scale used is provided as a supplement (S1 Appendix), and studies were dichotomised as those that scored highly on both the selection of cases and the assessment of psychiatric disorder. Studies were discussed by 2 reviewers, and a consensus rating was recorded.
Analysis
The prevalence of psychiatric morbidity was recorded as the proportion of individuals who engaged in suicidal behaviour with a psychiatric diagnosis. In some studies, the raw numbers of cases with a diagnosis were not presented, but this was back calculated in order to allow inclusion in the evidence synthesis. We pooled prevalence estimates using random effects meta-analysis using Stata version 15; this was done separately for fatal and nonfatal suicidal behaviour. We used the metaprop command in Stata and used a continuity correction for study estimates to ensure that studies with prevalence estimates close to 0% or 100% were not excluded. As recommended, we have used the score methods for the estimation of CIs for our binomial data [20]. Pooled estimates were generated using a random effects model using the method of DerSimonian and Laird [21], with the estimate of heterogeneity being taken from the inverse-variance fixed-effect model. We calculated a pooled estimate for each broad ICD-10 (f-code) diagnostic category separately and for the prevalence of any psychiatric disorder (if this was reported). Between study heterogeneity was assessed using I2 [22]. A pooled estimate was only calculated if there were enough studies in each broad ICD-10 code; codes with less than 5 studies were not meta-analysed. We also present the pooled estimates of the high-quality studies and use this to form the basis of our conclusions. Forest plots were used to graphically present the data, and predictive intervals are presented for the primary analyses. We conducted a set of prespecified subanalyses exploring potential sources of heterogeneity by (i) region, (ii) proportion of males (<50% versus ≥50%—to reflect the known sex differences in psychiatric morbidity in the general population), and (iii) subgrouping of f-codes. We did not generate pooled estimates for subgroups in which there were fewer than 5 studies. We also did not pool the estimates for the f-code subgroup of unspecific mental disorders, because the disorders included in this category are likely to be highly heterogenous. As a post hoc subanalysis, we explored potential sources of heterogeneity by the ages of individuals included in the studies. We grouped studies into those conducted in young people (≤25 years), working age adults (26–65 years), or older adults (>65 years). Studies that included all ages were grouped with the working age adult studies. We also conducted 2 additional subgroup analyses—by assessment type and method of nonfatal case ascertainment. These additional analyses were post hoc and restricted to the main psychiatric morbidities identified in this review. All data used in this analysis can be found in the supporting information (S1 Data).
Ethics
Ethical approval was not necessary, because this was the analysis of previously published data
Results
Fig 1 shows how we identified 112 studies reported in 154 papers, involving 30,030 nonfatal suicidal behaviour cases (studies n = 89) and 4,996 suicide deaths (studies n = 23) from 26 LMIC (see Table 1 for study characteristics). This represents 19% of all LMIC and 72% of people who live in LMIC [23]. The countries represented in the suicide studies account for 53% of suicide deaths globally and 70% of LMIC suicide deaths. There were 18 non-English articles included in this review. The countries with the greatest number of studies were from India (n = 28; 25%), China (n = 17; 15%), and Iran (n = 12; 11%). Suicide deaths were primarily identified through coroner’s or police records (n = 14) or through active surveillance systems (n = 7). Most studies on nonfatal suicidal behaviour (n = 81; 91%) were conducted in a hospital setting, with only 8 conducted in a community setting. Most studies either included all methods of suicidal behaviour or did not specify, with only 15 studies reporting on a specific method [17,24–37]. Table 2 and Table 3 summarises the number of studies reporting on each ICD-10 diagnosis category. If a study reported on a diagnosis that was unable to be grouped into a single ICD-10 category, these estimates were excluded (n = 12). A total of 17 studies were rated highly in our quality rating (15 of which reported on the overall prevalence of psychiatric disorder and 2 reported on individual diagnoses). These studies were from China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Thailand. These countries represent 52% of global and 68% of LMIC suicide deaths.
Table 1. Characteristics of included studies.
Author (year) country |
No. cases (% male/age range) |
Setting | Assessment type | Outcome | Quality | Single largest method group (%) | Multiple reports |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Abbas (2018) Iraq [38] |
647 (58%/All ages) |
Police | Clinician diagnosis | Fatal suicidal behaviour | Hanging (41%) |
||
Abeyasinghe (2008) Sri Lanka [39] |
372 (79%/≥10) |
Multiple sources | Clinician diagnosis | Fatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (70%) |
||
Ali (2014) Malaysia [40] |
328 (74%/All ages) |
Coroners | Clinician diagnosis | Fatal suicidal behaviour | |||
Altindag (2005) Turkey [41] |
26 (15%/All ages) |
Coroners | Clinician diagnosis | Fatal suicidal behaviour | Hanging (45%) |
||
Bhise (2016) India [42] |
98 (90%/All ages*) |
Coroners | Clinician diagnosis | Fatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (68%) |
||
Hagaman (2017) Nepal [43] |
302 (57%/≥18) |
Police | PHQ-9 | Fatal suicidal behaviour | Hanging (63%) |
||
Hayati (2004) Malaysia [44] |
76 (72%/All ages*) |
Coroners | Clinician diagnosis | Fatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (39%) |
||
Jia (2014) China [45] |
200 (58%/All ages) |
Surveillance | SCID | Fatal suicidal behaviour | High | ||
Khan (2005) India [46] |
50 (0%/15–35) |
Coroners | Clinician diagnosis | Fatal suicidal behaviour | Hanging (40%) |
||
Khan (2008) Pakistan [47] |
100 (83%/All ages*) |
Police | Clinician diagnosis | Fatal suicidal behaviour | Hanging (40%) |
||
Khelil (2016) Tunisia [37] |
235 (69%/All ages) |
Coroners | Clinician diagnosis | Fatal suicidal behaviour | Burning (100%) |
||
Kurihara (2009) Indonesia [48] |
60 (63%/All ages) |
Police | SCID | Fatal suicidal behaviour | High | Hanging (68%) |
|
Maksuti (2012) Albania [49] |
254 (64%/All ages) |
Coroners | Clinician diagnosis | Fatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (39%) |
||
Manoranjitham (2010) India [50] |
100 (59%/All ages*) |
Surveillance | SCID | Fatal suicidal behaviour | High | ||
Palacio (2007) Colombia [51] |
108 (81%/All ages*) |
Coroners | Clinician diagnosis | Fatal suicidal behaviour | Hanging (47%) |
[51] | |
Samaraweera (2008) Sri Lanka [52] |
27 (70%/All ages*) |
Coroners | Clinician diagnosis | Fatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (70%) |
||
Taktak (2013) Turkey [53] |
124 (67%/All ages) |
Coroners | Clinician diagnosis | Fatal suicidal behaviour | Hanging (60%) |
||
Tong (A) (2018) China [15] |
151 (55%/≥18) |
Surveillance | SCID | Fatal suicidal behaviour | High | Pesticide poisoning (55%) |
[54] |
Yang (2005) China [55] |
895 (51%/≥10) |
Surveillance | SCID | Fatal suicidal behaviour | High | Pesticide poisoning (58%) |
[9,56–62] |
Zhang (2004) China [63] |
66 (73%/All ages) |
Surveillance | SCID | Fatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (70%) |
[64] | |
Zhang (2010) China [65] |
392 (55%/15–34) |
Surveillance | SCID | Fatal suicidal behaviour | High | Pesticide poisoning (73%) |
[66–80] |
Zhou (2012) China [81] |
200 (%/All ages) |
Surveillance | SCID | Fatal suicidal behaviour | |||
Aghanwa (2004) Fiji [82] |
128 (31%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose (51%) |
[83] | |
Ahmadi (2010) Iran [34] |
30 (13%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Burning (100%) |
||
Atay (2012) Turkey [84] |
26 (0%/18–65 years) |
Community (self-report) | SCID | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose (73%) |
||
Ayehu (2017) Ethiopia [85] |
96 (42%/≥14) |
Hospital | MINI-plus | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | High | Pesticide poisoning (44%) |
|
Bansal (1) (2011) India [86] |
100 (42%/≥16) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (87%) |
||
Bansal (2) (2011) India [87] |
100 (61%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (69%) |
||
Barrimi (2014) Morocco [88] |
31 (58%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (52%) |
||
Batinic (2012) Serbia [89] |
60 (53%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Self-cutting (35%) |
||
Bhattacharjee (2012) India [90] |
200 (50%/≥15) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | |||
Bi (2010) China [91] |
239 (22%/≥15) |
Hospital | SCID | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | High | Poisoning (92%) |
|
Bilginer (2017) Turkey [31] |
100 (13%/Young people) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (100%) |
||
Borges (2010) Mexico [92] |
166 (%/18–65) |
Community (self-report) | WHO CIDI | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | |||
Caribe (2012) Brazil [29] |
110 (46%/–18) |
Hospital | MINI | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (49%) |
||
Chandrasekaran (2005) India [93] |
341 (45%/18+) |
Hospital | MINI | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (91%) |
[94] | |
Chatterjee (2015) India [95] |
100 (34%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | |||
Cherif (2012) Tunisia [96] |
30 (%/Adolescents) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose (67%) |
||
Cosar (1997) Turkey [97] |
185 (40%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose (61%) |
||
de Silva (A) (2000) Sri Lanka [98] |
172 (44%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (67%) |
||
de Silva (B) (2000) Sri Lanka [98] |
140 (54%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | |||
Diehl (2009) Brazil [99] |
39 (%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose (48%) |
||
Farzaneh (2010) Iran [36] |
248 (19%/12–18) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose (88%) |
||
Fresan (2015) Mexico [100] |
140 (36%/15–60) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (44%) |
||
Galgali (1998) India [35] |
308 (51%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (100%) |
||
Gao (2017) China [101] |
730 (30%/All ages) |
Community (self-report) | BDI | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | |||
Ghaleiha (2012) Iran [102] |
1,566 (47%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (83%) |
||
Gomes (2009) Brazil [103] |
132 (0%/10–49) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (95%) |
||
Grau (2013) Colombia [104] |
217 (46%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | |||
Grover (2016) India [105] |
109 (48%/<18) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis and BDI | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (52%) |
||
Haddad (1998) Jordan [33] |
20 (20%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Burning (100%) |
||
Haider (2016) India [106] |
100 (28%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis, BDI | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (71%) |
||
Ibiloglu (2016) Turkey [107] |
106 (46%/18–55) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis and SCID-I | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose (82%) |
||
Jain (1999) India [108] |
56 (59%/≥15) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (57%) |
||
Jiang (2013) China [109] |
297 (26%/All ages) |
Hospital | SCID | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (81%) |
||
Kar (2010) India [110] |
149 (44%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (41%) |
||
Khan (1998) Pakistan [111] |
447 (41%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose (74%) |
||
Khazaei (2003) Iran [112] |
301 (44%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | |||
Kinyanda (2004) Uganda [113] |
100 (64%/≥15) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (45%) |
||
Kulkarni (2013) India [114] |
100 (52%/18–55) |
Hospital | SCID and International Personality Disorder Examination | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | High | Pesticide poisoning (71%) |
[115,116] |
Kumar (1998) India [117] |
100 (65%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (53%) |
||
Kumar (2006) India [118] |
203 (51%/16–65) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning | ||
Kumar (2015) India [119] |
1,159 (50%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (76%) |
||
Lari (2007) Iran [25] |
89 (21%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Burns (100%) |
||
Latha (1996) India [120] |
73 (62%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis and BDI | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (67%) |
||
Liu (2018) China [121] |
409 (32%/15–70) |
Hospital | SCID | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | High | [121–123] | |
Ma (1999) China [124] |
98 (20%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Chinese mental health screening scale | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose (75%) |
||
Maselko (2008) India [125] |
2,318 (0%/18–45) |
Community (self-report) | CIS-R | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | |||
Mechri (2005) Tunisia [126] |
90 (59%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose | ||
Mohammadi (2005) Iran [127] |
362 (30%/≥18) |
Community (self-report) | SADS | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | |||
Moosa (2005) South Africa [128] |
43 (40%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose (63%) |
||
Mugisha (2015) Uganda [129] |
17 (%/≥18) |
Community (self-report) | MINI-plus | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | |||
Muralidhara (2011) India [130] |
51 (53%/18–65) |
Hospital | SCID | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (68%) |
||
Naidoo (2013) South Africa [131] |
688 (25%/≥18) |
Hospital | BDI | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (92%) |
||
Narang (2000) India [132] |
100 (58%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (77%) |
||
Ndosi (1997) Tanzania [133] |
300 (31%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Overdoses (91%) |
||
Ozdel (2009) Turkey [134] |
144 (25%/All ages*) |
Hospital | SCID | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose (70%) |
||
Paholpak (2012) Thailand ** [18] |
8,426 (%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | High | Poisoning (89%) |
|
Pandey (2013) India [135] |
80 (53%/18–60) |
Hospital | SCID-I and II | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | |||
Parkar (2006) India [136] |
196 (53%/≥18) |
Hospital | SCID | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (74%) |
[137] | |
Pearson (2002) China [138] |
147 (0%/15–35) |
Hospital | SCID | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (88%) |
||
Pérez-Olmos (2007) Colombia [139] |
96 (27%/11–18) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (97%) |
||
Qusar (2009) Bangladesh [140] |
44 (41%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (95%) |
||
Rajapakse (2014) Sri Lanka [28] |
949 (44%/≥14) |
Hospital | GAD-7, PHQ-9, and AUDIT | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (100%) |
||
Read (1997) South Africa [141] |
100 (25%/13–25) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis, BDI, Hamilton, and the Montgomery-Asberg | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (83%) |
||
Reza (2013) Bangladesh** [16] |
113 (39%/All ages) |
Community (self-report) | SCID | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | |||
Rezaie (2011) Iran [142] |
200 (34%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (69%) |
||
Risal (2011) Nepal [143] |
73 (30%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (93%) |
||
Santos (2009) Brazil [144] |
96 (38%/All ages*) |
Hospital | CIDI | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | High | Drug overdose (40%) |
|
Sathish (2016) India [145] |
50 (52%/All ages) |
Hospital | MINI-plus | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | High | Poisoning (60%) |
|
Seghatoleslam (2013) Iran [26] |
292 (18%/6–15) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose (89%) |
||
Shakeri (2015) Iran [146] |
400 (0%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Burning (44%) |
||
Sharma (1998) India [147] |
75 (47%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (75%) |
||
Sheikholeslami (2008) Iran [148] |
575 (30%/All ages*) |
Hospital | SCID-I and II | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (90%) |
||
Simsek (2013) Turkey [149] |
693 (22%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (90%) |
||
Srivastava (2004) India [150] |
137 (47%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning | ||
Sun (2017) China [151] |
791 (37%/15–54) |
Hospital | SCID-I | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | High | Pesticide poisoning (37%) |
[152] |
Thalagala (2003) Sri Lanka [153] |
396 (54%/All ages*) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | |||
Thanh (2005) Vietnam [154] |
515 (37%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose (urban) and pesticide poisoning (rural) | ||
Tong (B) (2018) China [15] |
120 (34%/≥18) |
Hospital | SCID | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | High | Pesticide poisoning (70%) |
[54] |
Toudehskchuie (2016) Iran [27] |
240 (41%/All ages) |
Hospital | SCID and alcohol dependency scale | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose (73%) |
||
Trabelsi (2015) Tunisia [155] |
33 (58%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Drug overdose (58%) |
||
Tuan (2009) Vietnam [30] |
309 (28%/All ages) |
Hospital | CIDI | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (100%) |
||
Unni (1995) India [156] |
100 (%/≥10) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | |||
van der Hoek (2005) Sri Lanka [32] |
200 (61%/≥16) |
Hospital | CIDI-SF | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning | ||
Vásquez-Rojas (2013) Colombia [157] |
213 (26%/Children) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning | ||
Vishnuvardhan (2012) India [158] |
100 (48%/≥18) |
Hospital | SCID | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Pesticide poisoning (57%) |
||
Wang (2012) China [159] |
59 (%/≥18) |
Community (self-report) | SCID | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | High | ||
Wei (2013) China [160] |
239 (22%/≥15) |
Hospital | SCID | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Poisoning (93%) |
[161] | |
Wilson (1994) South Africa [24] |
25 (76%/All ages) |
Hospital | Clinician diagnosis | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Battery acid (100%) |
||
Xiao (2011) China [162] |
617 (26%/All ages*) |
Hospital | SCID | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | High | Pesticide poisoning (76%) |
[163–167] |
Zarghami (2002) Iran** [17] |
318 (17%/All ages) |
Hospital | SCID | Nonfatal suicidal behaviour | Burning (100%) |
*Assumed all ages included.
**Study reports on both fatal and nonfatal suicidal behaviour as a combined outcome. The majority outcome (fatal/nonfatal) was used to class the study as either being a study of fatal or nonfatal suicidal behaviour.
Abbreviations: AUDIT, Alcohol use disorders identification test; BDI, Becks depression inventory; CIDI-SF, Composite international diagnostic interview–short form; CIS-R, Clinical interview schedule-revised; GAD-7, Generalised anxiety disorder assessment; MINI, Mini-international neuropsychiatric interview; PHQ-9, Patient health questionnaire; SADS, Schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia; SCID, structured clinical interview for DSM
Table 2. Primary analysis of fatal suicidal behaviour studies by ICD-10 codes.
ICD-10 Diagnosis | Unrestricted | High-quality studies | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. estimates (No. of studies) | Pooled estimate (95% CI) | I2 | No. estimates (No. of studies) | Pooled estimate (95% CI) | I2 | Predictive interval | |
Any psychiatric disorder | 19 (19) | 57% (45%–69%) | 98.6% | 6 (6) | 58% (46%–71%) | 96.1% | 13%-100% |
Mental disorders due to known physiological conditions | 3 (3) | − | − | 1 (1) | − | − | |
Mental and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance use | 15 (11) | 12% (8%–17%) | 96.9% | 4 (4) | − | − | |
Schizophrenia, schizotypal, delusional, and other nonmood psychotic disorders | 18 (15) | 7% (5%–9%) | 88.3% | 5 (4) | 8% (4%–12%) | 85.8% | 0%–23% |
Mood [affective] disorders | 22 (15) | 24% (19%–29%) | 99.0% | 5 (4) | 25% (8%–42%) | 99.1% | 0%–91% |
Anxiety, dissociative, stress-related, somatoform, and other nonpsychotic mental disorders | 12 (8) | 10% (4%–15%) | 96.5% | 3 (2) | − | − | |
Behavioural syndromes associated with physiological disturbances and physical factors | 0 (0) | − | − | 0 (0) | − | − | |
Disorders of adult personality and behaviour | 3 (3) | − | − | 0 (0) | − | − | |
Intellectual disabilities | 3 (3) | − | − | 0 (0) | − | − | |
Pervasive and specific developmental disorders | 0 (0) | − | − | 0 (0) | − | − | |
Behavioural and emotional disorders with onset usually occurring in childhood and adolescence | 0 (0) | − | − | 0 (0) | − | − | |
Unspecified mental disorder | 6 (6) | − | − | 2 (2) | − | − |
Abbreviation: ICD, International Classification of Diseases
Table 3. Primary analysis of nonfatal suicidal behaviour studies by ICD-10 codes.
ICD-10 Diagnosis | Unrestricted | High-quality studies | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. estimates (No. of studies) | Pooled estimate (95% CI) | I2 | No. estimates (No. of studies) | Pooled estimate (95% CI) | I2 | Predictive interval | |
Any psychiatric disorder | 59 (59) | 55% (43%–67%) | 99.9% | 11 (11) | 45% (30%–61%) | 98.9% | 0%–100% |
Mental disorders due to known physiological conditions | 9 (8) | 2% (1%–4%) | 83.3% | 1 (1) | − | − | |
Mental and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance use | 60 (56) | 8% (7%–9%) | 96.0% | 11 (9) | 11% (7%–16%) | 95.8% | 0%–27% |
Schizophrenia, schizotypal, delusional, and other nonmood psychotic disorders | 66 (55) | 5% (4%–6%) | 95.2% | 10 (8) | 7% (3%–11%) | 95.8% | 0%–22% |
Mood [affective] disorders | 123 (79) | 20% (18%–22%) | 98.5% | 17 (10) | 21% (12%–29%) | 98.4% | 0%–54% |
Anxiety, dissociative, stress-related, somatoform, and other nonpsychotic mental disorders | 111 (55) | 12% (10%–15%) | 99.1% | 14 (8) | 19% (1%–36%) | 99.8% | 0%–88% |
Behavioural syndromes associated with physiological disturbances and physical factors | 5 (3) | 3% (0%–5%) | 44.5% | 0 (0) | − | − | |
Disorders of adult personality and behaviour | 42 (33) | 9% (6%–11%) | 97.5% | 4 (2) | − | − | |
Intellectual disabilities | 4 (4) | − | − | 1 (1) | − | − | |
Pervasive and specific developmental disorders | 2 (2) | − | − | 0 (0) | − | − | |
Behavioural and emotional disorders with onset usually occurring in childhood and adolescence | 7 (5) | 3% (1%–4%) | 80.9% | 0 (0) | − | − | |
Unspecified mental disorder | 8 (8) | − | − | 2 (2) | − | − |
Abbreviation: ICD, International Classification of Diseases
Fatal suicidal behaviour
Primary analysis
Nineteen studies (out of 23) reported on an overall prevalence of psychiatric disorder for suicide deaths. Only 6 studies (from China, Indonesia, and India) were rated highly in our quality rating, and these studies included 1,798 individuals. There was a high degree of heterogeneity between the studies that were included in the meta-analysis (I2 = 96.1%), with estimates ranging from 30% [45] to 80% [48] (Table 2 and Fig 2).The pooled estimate of any psychiatric disorder in fatal suicidal behaviour, from these studies, was 58% (95% CI 46%–71%; Table 2 and Fig 2). There was at least one study for 8 of the 11 ICD-10 diagnosis categories, but only 2 categories had a sufficient number of high-quality studies to be included in the meta-analysis (Table 2). The unrestricted pooled estimates by each ICD-10 diagnosis category are summarised in Table 2 and shown in Fig A–D and L in S2 Appendix. Based on the evidence from high-quality studies, the most prevalent psychiatric disorder associated with fatal suicidal behaviour was mood disorder (25%).
Sensitivity analysis
We planned 3 subgroup analyses by region, proportion of males, and ICD-10 subgroups. We also conducted an additional analysis by the ages of individuals included in the studies and the assessment type. Given the limited number of studies, many of the subgroup analyses were unable to be conducted. These results are presented in detail in the supplementary material (Table A–E in S2 Appendix). There was little difference observed in the prevalence estimates, with the exception of the prevalence of anxiety-related disorders in which studies that were based on a clinician’s diagnosis (3%, 95% CI 1%–4%) reported lower rates than interview-based studies (14%, 95% CI 4%–24%). Only a limited amount of heterogeneity was explained by the sensitivity analysis.
Nonfatal suicidal behaviour
Primary analysis
A total of 59 studies (out of 89) reported on the total prevalence of mental disorders in nonfatal suicidal behaviour. There were only 9 high-quality studies (from Brazil, China, India, and Ethiopia), which gave an overall prevalence of psychiatric disorders of 45% (95% CI 30%–61%), with evidence of substantial heterogeneity between studies (I2 = 98.9%; Table 3 and Fig 3). These studies included 2,477 individuals. Estimates ranged between 3% [85] to 86% [145]. All 11 ICD-10 diagnosis categories had at least one study estimate, but there were only sufficient high-quality rated study estimates to generate pooled estimates for 4 of the categories (Table 3 and Fig E–L in S2 Appendix). The most prevalent disorder was mood disorder (21%), followed by anxiety and related disorders (17%).
Sensitivity analysis
Details of the sensitivity analysis are presented in the supplementary results (Table F–J in S2 Appendix). A limited amount of heterogeneity was explained by these analyses. We noted that the overall prevalence of psychiatric morbidity was lower in the East Asia and Pacific region (44%, 95% CI 30%–57%) than the other regions (range 50%–68%). Subgrouping by region reduced the amount of observed heterogeneity between studies for a limited number of ICD-10 categories. We also observed that studies with a higher proportion of male participants (i.e., ≥50% males) tended to have a higher prevalence of overall psychiatric morbidity (74%, 95% CI 63%–84%) compared with studies with less than 50% male participants (47%, 95% CI 36%–59%). This pattern persisted for all but one ICD-10 category. There were, however, only 8 studies that presented sex stratified prevalence of psychiatric morbidity from India, China, and Iran [91,102,117,121,135,148,151,160]. Two studies reported a higher prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in males than females [121,135], one reported a higher prevalence in females [117], and the remaining 5 studies reported no differences [91,102,148,151,160]. Studies that used a clinician’s diagnosis of psychiatric morbidity reported a higher prevalence of anxiety related disorders (15%, 95% CI 11%–19%) than those that used a validated diagnostic interview (8%, 95% CI 7%–10%). We found that studies based on self-reported cases of nonfatal suicidal behaviour reported lower levels of mood disorders (12%, 95% CI 9%–16%) compared with other studies (21%, 95% CI 18%–23%). This was also observed for anxiety related disorders (self-report: 8%, 95% CI 5%–11%); other: 13%, 95% CI 10%–15%), but the confidence intervals of the pooled estimates overlapped. We were unable to conduct a subgroup analysis by type of case ascertainment because of too few self-report studies that reported any psychiatric morbidity.
Discussion
To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review and meta-analysis focussed on psychiatric morbidity in suicidal behaviour in LMIC. A total of 112 studies in 26 LMIC have allowed us to estimate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in individuals who have engaged in suicidal behaviour. There were only 17 studies that were considered high-quality, with substantial heterogeneity observed between study estimates for psychiatric disorders. Prevalence estimates for psychiatric disorders in individuals who died by suicide ranged between 30% and 80% and between 3% and 86% in those who engaged in nonfatal suicidal behaviour. The pooled estimate of psychiatric disorders was 58% and 45% in fatal and nonfatal suicidal behaviour, respectively, though these estimates need to be interpreted with caution given the high degree of heterogeneity. The most prevalent disorder in both fatal and nonfatal suicidal behaviour was mood disorder, which was identified in roughly 1 in 4 cases. We also found that studies with a higher proportion of males reported higher levels of psychiatric disorders than studies with fewer males.
This evidence synthesis suggests that psychiatric disorders may be less common in individuals who engage in suicidal behaviour in LMIC. This result needs to be interpreted in light of the high degree of heterogeneity between study estimates and the wide-ranging estimates identified. The estimated prevalence in this review is markedly lower than the estimated prevalence in HIC (80%–92% [3,4,6]), but consistent with the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in ‘non-western’ (LMIC but also including Japan and Hong Kong) countries included in a previous review (fatal: 70%, 95% CI 57%–80% [4]; nonfatal: 59%, 95% CI 57%–61% [6]). The possible lower prevalence of psychiatric disorders in LMIC could reflect the suicide methods (e.g., pesticide ingestion) used in impulsive acts of self-harm with low suicidal intent that may be less strongly associated with mental illness [168]. It has also been suggested that suicidal behaviour may function as a means of communication in LMIC by disempowered members of the community (e.g., women and young people). When it is used in this way, it may again be less likely to be associated with psychiatric morbidity [169]. In addition, there may be culturally specific expressions of psychiatric symptoms that are not captured by diagnostic criteria such as ICD and DSM [170].
The most prevalent psychiatric disorder in this review, for both fatal and nonfatal suicidal behaviour, was a mood (affective) disorder (25% and 21%, respectively). This is much lower than the estimates in previous reviews of primarily HIC for suicide and nonfatal suicidal behaviour (43%–59%) [3–6]. The prevalence of other psychiatric disorder diagnoses for nonfatal suicidal behaviour was considerably lower in this study compared with a previous meta-analysis [6] (disorder [this study versus previous review]: anxiety disorders [19% versus 35%], substance misuse [11% versus 34%], and mood disorders [21% versus 59%]). This difference is likely to be explained by the fact that 70% to 80% of studies included in the previous reviews were from HIC. Only psychotic disorders had a similar prevalence (6%–9%) [4–6].
In this review, we also observed a suggested lower prevalence of psychiatric disorders in studies that included fewer males than females. There were very few studies that reported on sex specific prevalence rates, and whilst some supported our findings of a higher rate in males [121,135], others did not [91,102,117,121,135,148,151,160].
Of the 112 studies identified for this review, just under a fifth were considered high-quality studies that collected consecutive cases of suicidal behaviour (regardless of method) and that used a standardised interview schedule to obtain diagnosis. We considered studies that used a standardised interview schedule to be of higher quality because they are more likely to capture undiagnosed mental disorders. Under-recognition may be more likely in LMIC because of the limited number of mental health professionals who might formally diagnose psychiatric illness. Studies using clinician diagnoses did not generate very different results, apart for anxiety disorder (lower prevalence than diagnostic interviews in fatal behaviour, higher prevalence in nonfatal behaviour). Studies did not always present sex-specific rates of psychiatric disorder, nor did they present data in such a way to allow us to investigate how many patients had more than one diagnosis. We were also unable to distinguish between self-harm with and without intent in the studies included in the review, nor were we able to categorise studies according to whether attempts were first time or repeat episodes. For some studies, certain contextual factors may have impacted on the generalisability of the study findings to the wider suicidal population. For example, in countries where suicidal behaviour is still (or recently) considered a criminal act [171], the ascertainment of cases may be subject to a selection bias, with more medically serious attempts being included [16,40,47,50,86,87,93,95,105,106,108,110,111,113,114,118–120,129,132,135,136,140,145,147,150,156,158]. There is a clear need for more high-quality studies investigating the association between psychiatric morbidity and suicidal behaviour.
According to our findings, around half of individuals who engaged in suicidal behaviour had a psychiatric disorder in LMIC compared with most in HIC [3,6]. There was, however, a high degree of heterogeneity between studies and wide-ranging prevalence estimates. This heterogeneity could be because of differences in methodology. The studies themselves varied in ascertainment of outcomes, explanatory variables, and recruitment methods. Other possible sources of heterogeneity between studies may have arisen from variations in the way diagnostic criteria were interpreted and applied or the qualifications and training of interviewers (e.g., lay versus mental health professionals) [170]. Future studies should aim to recruit consecutive cases of suicidal behaviour regardless of method used and assess psychiatric disorders using standardised instruments that have cross-cultural validity. However, the heterogeneity could also reflect real differences in the aetiology of suicidal behaviour and prevalence of psychiatric disorder between countries. We explored the possibility of this by grouping studies by region, but the heterogeneity within regions remained high. It is clear that not all LMIC are the same. This raises a more fundamental question about whether the current LMIC/HIC dichotomy is meaningful. It might be more helpful to group countries according to contextual differences or by other indices (e.g., sociodemographic index or human development index).
In HIC, policy, clinical, and prevention interventions highlight the central role of psychiatric disorders. The possible lower prevalence of psychiatric disorders in suicidal behaviour in LMIC suggests that whilst the treatment of psychiatric disorders is important, it may need to be a part of a wider suite of prevention activities. In addition, it is important to note the interaction between local sociocultural factors (e.g., socially acceptable behaviours) and wider societal changes related to factors such as globalisation [172]. Prevention efforts in LMIC may need to consider addressing a number of modifiable factors along the causal pathway. Community-level factors, such as access to lethal means of suicide (e.g., pesticides), should be targets for suicide prevention. National bans of pesticides has been shown to be effective in reducing the number of suicide deaths [173]. Social and economic stressors, such as poverty [174,175], unemployment, and domestic violence [176], could be important targets for intervention. Measures to achieve poverty reduction include improved welfare support, opportunities for stable employment, and debt assistance [177]. Family conflicts are a key risk factor for suicide in Asian women [178,179]. Tackling domestic violence requires changes to the perceived status of women in communities, gender norms, and the negotiation of power in interpersonal relationships. These are ambitious aims, but a promising social change intervention has been trialled in Uganda [180]. The key elements included improved communication, supportive gender roles, joint decision-making, and nonviolent ways for dealing with relationship conflicts.
These community and nonmedical approaches may need to be part of the prevention activities in LMIC, alongside approaches that seek to modify the psychiatric risk factors. We found that half of suicidal behaviour was associated with mental disorder. How should mental health preventive efforts be focussed in LMIC? There is a substantial treatment gap in LMIC (with over 75% of psychiatric disorders going untreated [181]), and it is estimated that there is a workforce deficit of 11,000 psychiatrists in these settings [182]. Increasing the specialist mental health workforce in these contexts could be one priority, but the resources needed to do this might be limited in LMIC. One approach, which has proved effective in the treatment of depression and alcohol use disorders in India, is the provision of treatment by nonspecialist health workers (i.e., lay counsellors) [183,184]. Collaborative task sharing in these settings is a promising way forward in reducing the treatment gap, and, subsequently, in reducing the number of people who engage in suicidal behaviour.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic review and meta-analysis which has aimed to comprehensively synthesise existing evidence from LMIC in order to estimate the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in individuals who engaged in suicidal behaviour. A particular strength of this review is that no language restrictions were applied (this resulted in the inclusion of 18 papers that would otherwise have been excluded). In comparison to previous reviews, we consider both fatal and nonfatal suicidal behaviour within the same review. There were, however, limitations that need to be considered when interpreting our findings. There were few high-quality studies and substantial heterogeneity in our findings. We attempted to explore the sources of heterogeneity using our prespecified subgroup analysis but in almost all cases the heterogeneity remained high. We also relied on searches from journals indexed in 3 large databases but given that these tend to index primarily English language journals we may have missed publications. We attempted to overcome this limitation by conducting hand searches of key systematic reviews [3–6] and all included studies.
In conclusion, prevalence estimates for psychiatric disorders in individuals who died by suicide ranged between 30% and 80% and between 3% and 86% in those who engaged in nonfatal suicidal behaviour. Less than a fifth of identified studies were rated as high-quality, and substantial heterogeneity was observed between study estimates. Psychiatric morbidity may be less in suicidal behaviour in LMIC. There is, however, an urgent need for more methodologically robust studies from these settings to help these resource-poor countries to appropriately balance preventive approaches.
Supporting information
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Dr. José Lopez-Lopez, Nikki Dehmahdi, and Hojat Gharaee for their help in translating articles included in this review.
Abbreviations
- AUDIT
Alcohol use disorders identification test
- BDI
Becks depression inventory
- CIDI-SF
Composite international diagnostic interview–short form
- CIS-R
Clinical interview schedule-revised
- ES
Effect size
- GAD-7
Generalised anxiety disorder assessment
- HIC
high-income countries
- ICD
International Classification of Diseases
- LMIC
low- and middle-income countries
- MINI
Mini-international neuropsychiatric interview
- NOS
Newcastle-Ottawa scale
- NSSI
nonsuicidal self-injury
- PHQ-9
Patient health questionnaire
- SADS
Schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia
- SCID
structured clinical interview for DSM
Data Availability
All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files
Funding Statement
This work was supported by the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research, University of Bristol and the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
References
- 1.World Health Organisation. Preventing suicide—A global imperative Geneva: WHO, 2014. [Google Scholar]
- 2.Gunnell D, Lewis G. Studying suicide from the life course perspective: implications for prevention. Br J Psychiatry. 2005;187:206–8. 10.1192/bjp.187.3.206 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 3.Cavanagh JT, Carson AJ, Sharpe M, Lawrie SM. Psychological autopsy studies of suicide: a systematic review. Psychol Med. 2003;33(3):395–405. 10.1017/s0033291702006943 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 4.Cho SE, Na KS, Cho SJ, Im JS, Kang SG. Geographical and temporal variations in the prevalence of mental disorders in suicide: Systematic review and meta-analysis. J Affect Disord. 2016;190:704–13. Epub 2015/11/26. 10.1016/j.jad.2015.11.008 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 5.Arsenault-Lapierre G, Kim C, Turecki G. Psychiatric diagnoses in 3275 suicides: a meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry. 2004;4:37 Epub 2004/11/06. 10.1186/1471-244X-4-37 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 6.Hawton K, Saunders K, Topiwala A, Haw C. Psychiatric disorders in patients presenting to hospital following self-harm: a systematic review. J Affect Disord. 2013;151(3):821–30. Epub 2013/10/05. 10.1016/j.jad.2013.08.020 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 7.Colucci E, Lester D, editors. Suicide and Culture: Understanding the Context. Cambridge, MA: Hogrefe Publishing; 2012. [Google Scholar]
- 8.Radhakrishnan R, Andrade C. Suicide: An Indian perspective. Indian J Psychiatry. 2012;54(4):304–19. 10.4103/0019-5545.104793 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 9.Phillips MR, Yang G, Zhang Y, Wang L, Ji H, Zhou M. Risk factors for suicide in China: a national case-control psychological autopsy study. Lancet. 2002;360(9347):1728–36. Epub 2002/12/14. 10.1016/S0140-6736(02)11681-3 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 10.Vijayakumar L, Rajkumar S. Are risk factors for suicide universal? A case-control study in India. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1999;99(6):407–11. 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1999.tb00985.x . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 11.Ahmed HU, Hossain MD, Aftab A, Soron TR, Alam MT, Chowdhury MWA, et al. Suicide and depression in the World Health Organization South-East Asia Region: A systematic review. WHO South East Asia J Public Health. 2017;6(1):60–6. Epub 2017/06/10. 10.4103/2224-3151.206167 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 12.World Bank. Country and Lending Groups [27/02/2018]. Available from: http://data.worldbank.org/about/country-and-lending-groups. [cited 2018 February 27].
- 13.Spitzer R, Williams J, Gibbon M, First M. Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Washington DC: American Psychiatric Press; 1990. [Google Scholar]
- 14.Ouzzani M, Hammady H, Fedorowicz Z, Elmagarmid A. Rayyan—a web and mobile app for systematic reviews. Systematic Reviews. 2016;5(1):210 10.1186/s13643-016-0384-4 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 15.Tong Y, Phillips MR, Yin Y. Prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses in individuals who die by suicide or attempt suicide in China based on independent structured diagnostic interviews with different informants. J Psychiatr Res. 2018;98:30–8. Epub 2017/12/24. 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2017.12.003 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 16.Reza AS, Feroz AHM, Islam SN, Karim MN, Rabbani MG, Shah Alam M, et al. Risk Factors of Suicide and Para Suicide in Rural Bangladesh. Bangladesh J Medicine. 2014;14(2):7 Epub 2014-08-04. 10.3329/jom.v14i2.19653 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
- 17.Zarghami M, Khalilian A. Deliberate self-burning in Mazandaran, Iran. Burns. 2002;28(2):115–9. Epub 2002/03/20. 10.1016/s0305-4179(01)00092-4 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 18.Paholpak P, Rangseekajee P, Arunpongpaisal S, Piyavhatkul N, Thepsuthammarat K, Paholpak S. Characteristics and burden of hospitalization because of intentional self-harm: Thai national, hospital-based data for 2010. J Med Assoc Thai. 2012;95 Suppl 7:S156–62. Epub 2012/11/08. . [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 19.Wells G, Shea B, O'Connell D, Peterson J, Welch W, Losos M, et al. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for assessing the quality of nonrandomised studies in meta-analyses [6 May 2014]. Available from: http://www.ohri.ca/programs/clinical_epidemiology/oxford.asp. [cited 2014 May 6]. [Google Scholar]
- 20.Nyaga VN, Arbyn M, Aerts M. Metaprop: a Stata command to perform meta-analysis of binomial data. Arch Public Health. 2014;72(1):39 Epub 2014/01/01. 10.1186/2049-3258-72-39 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 21.DerSimonian R, Laird N. Meta-analysis in clinical trials. Control Clin Trials. 1986;7(3):177–88. Epub 1986/09/01. . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 22.Higgins JP, Thompson SG, Deeks JJ, Altman DG. Measuring inconsistency in meta-analyses. BMJ. 2003;327(7414):557–60. Epub 2003/09/06. 10.1136/bmj.327.7414.557 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 23.World Bank. DataBank 2017 [updated 16/10/2018]. Available from: http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=2&series=SP.POP.TOTL&country=. [cited 2018 October 16].
- 24.Wilson DA, Wormald PJ. Battery acid—an agent of attempted suicide in black South Africans. S Afr Med J. 1995;85(6):529–31. Epub 1995/06/01. . [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 25.Lari AR, Joghataei MT, Adli YR, Zadeh YA, Alaghehbandan R. Epidemiology of suicide by burns in the province of Isfahan, Iran. J Burn Care Res. 2007;28(2):307–11. Epub 2007/03/14. 10.1097/BCR.0B013E318031A27F . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 26.Seghatoleslam T, Farzaneh E, Rezaee O, Sajadfar F, Mehrpour O. Factors Related to Suicide Attempts by Poisoning in Iranian Children. Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology. 2013;7(1):129–32. [Google Scholar]
- 27.Toudehskchuie GR, Fereidoon M. What Can Influence Iranian Suicide Attempters to Go Through the Process of Non-Fatal Suicide Act Once Again? A Preliminary Report. Community Ment Health J. 2016;52(5):597–608. Epub 2016/03/21. 10.1007/s10597-015-9958-1 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 28.Rajapakse T, Griffiths KM, Christensen H, Cotton S. A comparison of non-fatal self-poisoning among males and females, in Sri Lanka. BMC Psychiatry. 2014;14:221 10.1186/s12888-014-0221-z PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4149235. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 29.Caribe AC, Nunez R, Montal D, Ribeiro L, Sarmento S, Quarantini LC, et al. Religiosity as a protective factor in suicidal behavior: a case-control study. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2012;200(10):863–7. Epub 2012/10/06. 10.1097/NMD.0b013e31826b6d05 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 30.Tuan NV, Dalman C, Thiem NV, Nghi TV, Allebeck P. Suicide attempts by poisoning in Hanoi, Vietnam: methods used, mental problems, and history of mental health care. Arch Suicide Res. 2009;13(4):368–77. Epub 2009/10/09. 10.1080/13811110903266657 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 31.Bilginer C, Cop E, Goker Z, Hekim O, Sekmen E, Uneri O. Overview of young people attempting suicide by drug overdose and prevention and protection services. Dusunen Adam The Journal of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences. 2017;30:243–50. [Google Scholar]
- 32.van der Hoek W, Konradsen F. Risk factors for acute pesticide poisoning in Sri Lanka. Trop Med Int Health. 2005;10(6):589–96. 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2005.01416.x . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 33.Haddad S.Y., Haddadin K.J., Abu-Samen M., Wreikat M.W., A.I. H. Suicide attempted by burning: A three-year study. Annals of Burns and Fire Disasters. 1998;6(4):1–4. [Google Scholar]
- 34.Ahmadi A, Mohammadi R, Schwebel DC, Yeganeh N, Hassanzadeh M, Bazargan-Hejazi S. Psychiatric disorders (Axis I and Axis II) and self-immolation: a case-control study from Iran. J Forensic Sci. 2010;55(2):447–50. Epub 2010/01/15. 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2009.01268.x . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 35.Galgali RB, Rao S, Ashok MV, Appaya P, Srinivasan K. Psychiatric diagnosis of self poisoning cases: a general hospital study. Indian J Psychiatry. 1998;40(3):254–9. Epub 1998/07/01. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 36.Farzaneh E, Mehrpour O, Alfred S, Moghaddam HH, Behnoush B, Seghatoleslam T. Self-poisoning suicide attempts among students in Tehran, Iran. Psychiatr Danub. 2010;22(1):34–8. Epub 2010/03/23. . [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 37.Khelil MB, Zgarni A, Zaafrane M, Chkribane Y, Gharbaoui M, Harzallah H, et al. Suicide by self-immolation in Tunisia: A 10 year study (2005–2014). Burns. 2016;42(7):1593–9. Epub 2016/05/24. 10.1016/j.burns.2016.04.019 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 38.Abbas MJ, Alhemiary N, Razaq EA, Naosh S, Appleby L. The Iraqi national study of suicide: Report on suicide data in Iraq in 2015 and 2016. J Affect Disord. 2018;229:56–62. Epub 2018/01/08. 10.1016/j.jad.2017.12.037 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 39.Abeyasinghe R, Gunnell D. Psychological autopsy study of suicide in three rural and semi-rural districts of Sri Lanka. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2008;43(4):280–5. 10.1007/s00127-008-0307-3 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 40.Ali NH, Zainun KA, Bahar N, Haniff J, Hamid AM, Bujang MA, et al. Pattern of suicides in 2009: data from the National Suicide Registry Malaysia. Asia Pacific Psychiatry. 2014;6(2):217–25. Epub 2013/07/17. 10.1111/j.1758-5872.2012.00227.x . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 41.Altindag A, Ozkan M, Oto R. Suicide in Batman, southeastern Turkey. Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2005;35(4):478–82. . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 42.Bhise MC, Behere PB. Risk Factors for Farmers' Suicides in Central Rural India: Matched Case-control Psychological Autopsy Study. Indian J Psychol Med. 2016;38(6):560–6. Epub 2016/12/30. 10.4103/0253-7176.194905 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 43.Hagaman AK, Khadka S, Lohani S, Kohrt B. Suicide in Nepal: a modified psychological autopsy investigation from randomly selected police cases between 2013 and 2015. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2017;52(12):1483–94. Epub 2017/09/01. 10.1007/s00127-017-1433-6 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 44.Hayati AN, Salina AA, Abdullah AA, Eusni RT, Mansar AH. The pattern of completed suicides seen in Kuala Lumpur General Hospital 1999. Med J Malaysia. 2004;59(2):190–8. Epub 2004/11/24. . [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 45.Jia CX, Wang LL, Xu AQ, Dai AY, Qin P. Physical illness and suicide risk in rural residents of contemporary China: a psychological autopsy case-control study. Crisis. 2014;35(5):330–7. Epub 2014/09/06. 10.1027/0227-5910/a000271 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 46.Khan FA, Anand B, Devi MG, Murthy KK. Psychological autopsy of suicide-a cross-sectional study. Indian J Psychiatry. 2005;47(2):73–8. Epub 2005/04/01. 10.4103/0019-5545.55935 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 47.Khan MM, Mahmud S, Karim MS, Zaman M, Prince M. Case-control study of suicide in Karachi, Pakistan. Br J Psychiatry. 2008;193(5):402–5. 10.1192/bjp.bp.107.042069. 10.1192/bjp.bp.107.042069 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 48.Kurihara T, Kato M, Reverger R, Tirta IGR. Risk factors for suicide in Bali: a psychological autopsy study. BMC Public Health. 2009;9:327 10.1186/1471-2458-9-327 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 49.Maksuti P, Kola V, Simaku A. Epidemiological overview on pattern of suicide in the district of Tirana in Albania, over the period 2001–2010. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2012;1:229 . [Google Scholar]
- 50.Manoranjitham S, Rajkumar A, Thangadurai P, Prasad J, Jayakaran R, Jacob K. Risk factors for suicide in rural South India. Br J Psychiatry. 2010;196(1):26–30. 10.1192/bjp.bp.108.063347 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 51.Palacio-Acosta C, Garcia-Valencia J, Diago-Garcia J, Zapata C, Ortiz-Tobon J, Lopez-Calle G, et al. Characteristics of people committing suicide in Medellin, Colombia. Revista de Salud Publica. 2005;7(3):243–53. . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 52.Samaraweera S, Sumathipala A, Siribaddana S, Sivayogan S, Bhugra D. Prevalence of suicidal ideation in Sri Lanka. Crisis. 2010;31(1):30–5. Epub 2010/03/04. 10.1027/0227-5910/a000010 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 53.Taktak S, Uzun I, Balcioglu I. Gender differences in completed suicides in Istanbul, Turkey. J Affect Disord. 2013;145(3):394–9. 10.1016/j.jad.2012.05.055 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 54.Tong Y, Phillips MR, Conner KR. DSM-IV Axis II personality disorders and suicide and attempted suicide in China. Br J Psychiatry. 2016;209(4):319–26. Epub 2015/11/21. 10.1192/bjp.bp.114.151076 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 55.Yang GH, Phillips MR, Zhou MG, Wang LJ, Zhang YP, Xu D. Understanding the unique characteristics of suicide in China: national psychological autopsy study. Biomed Environ Sci. 2005;18(6):379–89. Epub 2006/03/21. . [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 56.Zhang Y, Conner KR, Phillips MR. Alcohol use disorders and acute alcohol use preceding suicide in China. Addict Behav. 2010;35(2):152–6. 10.1016/j.addbeh.2009.09.020 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 57.Phillips MR, Shen Q, Liu X, Pritzker S, Streiner D, Conner K, et al. Assessing depressive symptoms in persons who die of suicide in mainland China. J Affect Disord. 2007;98(1):73–82. 10.1016/j.jad.2006.07.020 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 58.Tong Y, Phillips MR. Cohort-specific risk of suicide for different mental disorders in China. Br J Psychiatry. 2010;196(6):467–73. Epub 2010/06/02. 10.1192/bjp.bp.109.070409 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 59.Du C-J, Li X-Y, Zhang Y-P. Comparison of the characteristics of completed suicide in people with and without mental disorders older than 55 and with no serious physical illnesses. [Chinese]. Chinese Mental Health Journal. 2008;22(6):397–400. [Google Scholar]
- 60.Zhang Y, Li X, Wang L, Zhao Y, Meng M, Zhang F, et al. National case-control study of suicide and accidental death Chinese Mental Health Journal. 2004;18:861–4. [Google Scholar]
- 61.Phillips MR, Yang G. Suicide and Attempted Suicide—China, 1990–2002. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2004;53(22):481–4. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 62.Li XY, Phillips MR, Zhang YP, Xu D, Yang GH. Risk factors for suicide in China's youth: a case-control study. Psychol Med. 2008;38(3):397–406. 10.1017/S0033291707001407 . [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 63.Zhang J, Conwell Y, Zhou L, Jiang C. Culture, risk factors and suicide in rural China: a psychological autopsy case control study. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2004;110(6):430–7. Epub 2004/11/04. 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2004.00388.x [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 64.Zhang J, Zhou L. A case control study of suicides in China with and without mental disorder. Crisis. 2009;30(2):68–72. 10.1027/0227-5910.30.2.68 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 65.Zhang J, Xiao SY, Zhou LA. Mental Disorders and Suicide Among Young Rural Chinese: A Case-Control Psychological Autopsy Study. Am J Psychiatry. 2010;167(7):773–81. 10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.09101476 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 66.Sun L, Zhang J. Characteristics of chinese rural young suicides: Who did not have a strong intent to die. Compr Psychiatry. 2015;57:73–8. 10.1016/j.comppsych.2014.11.019 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 67.Lin L, Zhang J, Zhou L, Jiang C. The relationship between impulsivity and suicide among rural youths aged 15–35 years: A case-control psychological autopsy study. Psychol Health Med. 2016;21(3):330–7. 10.1080/13548506.2015.1051555 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 68.Zhang J, Li Z. Characteristics of Chinese rural young suicides by pesticides. Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2013;59(7):655–62. 10.1177/0020764012450995 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 69.Jia C-X, Zhang J. Global functioning and suicide among Chinese rural population aged 15–34 years: A psychological autopsy case-control study. J Forensic Sci. 2012;57(2):391–7. 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2011.01978.x [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 70.Lin L, Zhang J. Impulsivity, mental disorder, and suicide in rural China. Arch Suicide Res. 2017;21(1):73–82. 10.1080/13811118.2015.1004478 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 71.Li Z, Zhang J. Coping skills, mental disorders, and suicide among rural youths in China. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2012;200(10):885–90. 10.1097/NMD.0b013e31826b6ecc . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 72.Zhang J, Wieczorek W, Conwell Y, Tu XM, Wu BY, Xiao S, et al. Characteristics of young rural Chinese suicides: a psychological autopsy study. Psychol Med. 2010;40(4):581–9. 10.1017/S0033291709990808 ; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2996472. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 73.Kong Y, Zhang J. Access to farming pesticides and risk for suicide in Chinese rural young people. Psychiatry Res. 2010;179(2):217–21. Epub 2010/05/21. 10.1016/j.psychres.2009.12.005 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 74.Lyu J, Zhang J. Characteristics of schizophrenia suicides compared with suicides by other diagnosed psychiatric disorders and those without a psychiatric disorder. Schizophr Res. 2014;155(1):59–65. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 75.Sun L, Zhang J, Liu X. Insomnia symptom, mental disorder and suicide: A case-control study in Chinese rural youths. Sleep Biol Rhythms. 2015;13(2):181–8. 10.1111/sbr.12105 . [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 76.Zhang J, Li Z. Suicide means used by Chinese rural youths: A comparison between those with and without mental disorders. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2011;199(6):410–5. 10.1097/NMD.0b013e31821d3ac7 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 77.Zhang J, Li Z. The association between depression and suicide when hopelessness is controlled for. Compr Psychiatry. 2013;54(7):790–6. 10.1016/j.comppsych.2013.03.004 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 78.Zhang J, Li ZY, Xiao SY, Zhou L, Jia CX, Pan GW. Mental disorder and suicide among youths in rural China: a case control study based on consecutive samples from Hunan, Liaoning and Shandong provinces. [Chinese]. Chung Hua Liu Hsing Ping Hsueh Tsa Chih Chinese Journal of Epidemiology. 2012;33(6):588–92. . [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 79.Zhang J, Wieczorek WF, Conwell Y, Tu XM. Psychological strains and youth suicide in rural China. Soc Sci Med. 2011;72(12):2003–10. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.03.048 . [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 80.Zhou R, Zhang J, Qiu H-M. Identification of mental disorders in rural youth suicides. [Chinese]. Chinese Mental Health Journal. 2014;28(4):248–52. [Google Scholar]
- 81.Zhou XM, Jia SH. Suicidal communication signifies suicidal intent in Chinese completed suicides. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2012;47(11):1845–54. 10.1007/s00127-012-0488-7 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 82.Aghanwa H. The determinants of attempted suicide in a general hospital setting in Fiji Islands: a gender-specific study. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2004;26(1):63–9. . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 83.Aghanwa HS. The characteristics of suicide attempters admitted to the main general hospital in Fiji Islands. J Psychosom Res. 2000;49(6):439–45. Epub 2001/02/22. 10.1016/s0022-3999(00)00193-8 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 84.Atay IM, Eren I, Gundogar D. The prevalence of death ideation and attempted suicide and the associated risk factors in Isparta, Turkey. Turkish Journal of Psychiatry. 2012;23(2):89–98. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 85.Ayehu M, Solomon T, Lemma K. Socio-demographic characteristics, clinical profile and prevalence of existing mental illness among suicide attempters attending emergency services at two hospitals in Hawassa city, South Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study. Int J Ment Health Syst. 2017;11(32). . [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 86.Bansal PD, Barman R. Psychiatric morbidity and the socio-demographic determinants of deliberate self harm. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. 2011;5(3):601–4. [Google Scholar]
- 87.Bansal P, Gupta A, Kumar R. The Psychopathology and the Sociodemographic Determinants of Attempted Suicide Patients. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. 2011;5(5):917–20. [Google Scholar]
- 88.Barrimi M, Zaidi K, Hlal H, Kettani N, Khelafa S, Rammouz I, et al. Violent suicide attempts in the general hospital of Fez (Morocco): Evaluation and management in liaison psychiatry. Prospective study over a period of 6 months. [French]. L'Evolution Psychiatrique. 2014;79(4):619–28. [Google Scholar]
- 89.Batinic B, Djeric-Jeremic M, Opacic G, editors. Analysis of sociodemographics, diagnostic characteristics and suicide attempt method of hospitalized suicide attempters. European Psychiatry. Conference: 20th European Congress of Psychiatry, EPA; 2012 2012-1-1.
- 90.Bhattacharjee S, Bhattacharya A, Thakurta RG, Ray P, Singh OP, Sen S. Putative effect of alcohol on suicide attempters: an evaluative study in a tertiary medical college. Indian J Psychol Med. 2012;34(4):371–5. Epub 2013/06/01. 10.4103/0253-7176.108224 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 91.Bi B, Tong J, Liu L, Wei S, Li H, Hou J, et al. Comparison of patients with and without mental disorders treated for suicide attempts in the emergency departments of four general hospitals in Shenyang, China. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2010;32(5):549–55. 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2010.06.003 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 92.Borges G, Nock MK, Medina-Mora ME, Hwang I, Kessler RC. Psychiatric disorders, comorbidity, and suicidality in Mexico. J Affect Disord. 2010;124(1–2):98–107. Epub 2009/11/21. 10.1016/j.jad.2009.10.022 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 93.Chandrasekaran R, Gnanaselane J. Correlates of suicidal intent in attempted suicide. Hong Kong Journal of Psychiatry. 2005;15:118–21. [Google Scholar]
- 94.Chandrasekaran R, Gnanaseelan J, Sahai A, Swaminathan RP, Perme B. Psychiatric and personality disorders in survivors following their first suicide attempt. Indian J Psychiatry. 2003;45(2):45–8. Epub 2003/04/01. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 95.Chatterjee S, Kadam M. Study of psychiatric comorbidity and psychosocial stress factors in patients attempting suicide. Indian J Psychiatry. 2015;1:S78 . [Google Scholar]
- 96.Cherif L, Ayedi H, Sahnoun F, Walha A, Moalla Y, Rekik N, et al. Psychopathology of suicide attempts among adolescents. [French]. Neuropsychiatr Enfance Adolesc. 2012;60(6):454–60. . [Google Scholar]
- 97.Cosar B, Kocal N, Arikan Z, Isik E. Suicide attempts among Turkish psychiatric patients. Can J Psychiatry. 1997;42(10):1072–5. Epub 1998/02/20. 10.1177/070674379704201009 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 98.De Silva HJ, Kasturiaratchi N, Seneviratne SL, Senaratne DC, Molagoda A, Ellawala NS. Suicide in Sri Lanka: points to ponder. Ceylon Med J. 2000;45(1):17–24. Epub 2000/09/28. . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 99.Diehl A, Laranjeira R. Suicide attempts and substance use in an emergency room sample. J Bras Psiquiatr. 2009;58(2):86–91. . [Google Scholar]
- 100.Fresan A, Gonzalez-Castro TB, Peralta-Jimenez Y, Juarez-Rojop I, Pool-Garcia S, Velazquez-Sanchez MP, et al. Gender differences in socio-demographic, clinical characteristics and psychiatric diagnosis in/of suicide attempters in a Mexican population. Acta Neuropsychiatrica. 2015;27(3):182–8. 10.1017/neu.2015.6 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 101.Gao T, Xiang YT, Zhang H, Gao J, Kong Y, Hu Y, et al. Prevalence and Correlates of Suicidal Behaviors among College Students in Northeastern China: a Cross-Sectional Study. Psychiatr Q. 2017:1–12. 10.1007/s11126-016-9428-0 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 102.Ghaleiha A, Afzali S, Bazyar M, Khorsand F, Torabian S. Characteristics of hospitalized patients following suicide attempt in hamadan district, iran. Oman Med J. 2012;27(4):304–9. 10.5001/omj.2012.75 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 103.Gomes FA, O'Brien B, Nakano AM. Attempted suicide in reproductive age women. Health Care Women Int. 2009;30(8):707–19. 10.1080/07399330903018385 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 104.Grau AG, Sanchez AC, Mendez NR, Ramirez GB. Suicide attempts and related risk factors in Cartagena, Colombia. [Spanish]. Acta Psiquiatr Psicol Am Lat. 2013;59(4):240–52. [Google Scholar]
- 105.Grover S, Sarkar S, Bhalla A, Chakrabarti S, Avasthi A. Religious coping among self-harm attempters brought to emergency setting in India. Asian J Psychiatr. 2016;23:78–86. 10.1016/j.ajp.2016.07.009 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 106.Haider S, Mahato AK. Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of patients who attempt suicide: A hospitalbased study from eastern India. East Asian Archives of Psychiatry. 2016;26(3):98–103. . [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 107.Ibiloglu AO, Atli A, Demir S, Gunes M, Kaya MC, Bulut M, et al. The investigation of factors related to suicide attempts in Southeastern Turkey. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2016;12:407–16. 10.2147/NDT.S97471 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 108.Jain V, Singh H, Gupta SC, Kumar S. A study of hopelessness, suicidal intent and depression in cases of attempted suicide. Indian J Psychiatry. 1999;41(2):122–30. Epub 1999/04/01. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 109.Jiang C, Li X, Phillips MR, Xu Y. Matched case-control study of medically serious attempted suicides in rural China. Shanghai Arch Psychiatry. 2013;25(1):22–31. Epub 2013/02/01. 10.3969/j.issn.1002-0829.2013.01.006 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 110.Kar N. Profile of risk factors associated with suicide attempts: A study from Orissa, India. Indian J Psychiatry. 2010;52(1):48–56. Epub 2010/02/23. 10.4103/0019-5545.58895 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 111.Khan MM, Reza H. Gender differences in nonfatal suicidal behavior in Pakistan: significance of sociocultural factors. Suicide Life Threat Behav. 1998;28(1):62–8. Epub 1998/04/29. . [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 112.Khazaei HE, Parvizifard A. Demographic characteristics and mental state evalusation of attempted suicide victims in Tabriz in 2001 [Persian]. Journal of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. 2003;7(3):42–51. [Google Scholar]
- 113.Kinyanda E, Hjelmeland H, Musisi S. Deliberate self-harm as seen in Kampala, Uganda—a case-control study. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2004;39(4):318–25. Epub 2004/04/16. 10.1007/s00127-004-0748-2 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 114.Kulkarni RR, Rao KN, Begum S. Comorbidity of psychiatric and personality disorders in first suicide attempters: a case-control study. Asian J Psychiatr. 2013;6(5):410–6. Epub 2013/09/10. 10.1016/j.ajp.2013.05.004 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 115.Kulkarni RR, Nagaraja Rao K, Begum S. Clinical profile of first suicide attempters in a general hospital. Indian J Psychiatry. 2013;55:S56 . [Google Scholar]
- 116.Rao KN, Kulkarni RR, Begum S. Comorbidity of psychiatric and personality disorders in first suicide attempters. Indian J Psychol Med. 2013;35(1):75–9. Epub 2013/07/09. 10.4103/0253-7176.112210 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 117.Kumar PN. Age and gender related analysis of psychosocial factors in attempted suicide. Indian J Psychiatry. 1998;40(4):338–45. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 118.Kumar CTS, Mohan R, Ranjith G, Chandrasekaran R. Gender differences in medically serious suicide attempts: a study from south India. Psychiatry Res. 2006;144(1):79–86. Epub 2006/08/22. 10.1016/j.psychres.2005.11.012 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 119.Kumar PNS, Anish PK, George B. Risk factors for suicide in elderly in comparison to younger age groups. Indian J Psychiatry. 2015;57(3):249–54. 10.4103/0019-5545.166614 . [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 120.Latha KS, Bhat SM, D'Souza P. Suicide attempters in a general hospital unit in India: their socio-demographic and clinical profile—emphasis on cross-cultural aspects. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1996;94(1):26–30. Epub 1996/07/01. 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1996.tb09820.x . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 121.Liu Y, Zhang J. The Impact of Negative Life Events on Attempted Suicide in Rural China. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2018;206(3):187–94. Epub 2017/08/18. 10.1097/NMD.0000000000000727 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 122.Liu BP, Wang XT, Jia CX. Suicide attempters with high and low suicide intent: Different populations in rural China. Psychiatry Res. 2017;251:176–81. 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.01.096 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 123.Liu YY, Wang XT, Qiu HM, Xu AQ, Jia CX. Functional and dysfunctional impulsivity and attempted suicide in rural China: A paired case-control study. Psychiatry Res. 2017;253:22–7. 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.03.025 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 124.Ma C, Fang M. Psychological factors and clinical features of attempted suicides. [Chinese]. Chinese Mental Health Journal. 1999;13(2):110–2. [Google Scholar]
- 125.Maselko J, Patel V. Why women attempt suicide: the role of mental illness and social disadvantage in a community cohort study in India. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2008;62(9):817–22. 10.1136/jech.2007.069351 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 126.Mechri A, Mrad A, Ajmi F, Zaafrane F, Khiari G, Nouira S, et al. Repeat suicide attempts: characteristics of repeaters versus first-time attempters admitted in the emergency of a tunisian general hospital. [French]. L'Encephale: Revue de psychiatrie clinique biologique et therapeutique. 2005;31(1):65–71. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 127.Mohammadi MR, Ghanizadeh A, Rahgozart M, Noorbala AA, Malekafzali H, Davidian H, et al. Suicidal attempt and psychiatric disorders in Iran. Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2005;35(3):309–16. Epub 2005/09/15. . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 128.Moosa MYH, Jeenah FY, Vorster M. Repeat non-fatal suicidal behaviour at Johannesburg Hospital. S Afr J Psychiatr. 2005;11(3):84–8. . [Google Scholar]
- 129.Mugisha J, Muyinda H, Malamba S, K, a E. Major depressive disorder seven years after the conflict in northern Uganda: Burden, risk factors and impact on outcomes (The Wayo-Nero Study). BMC Psychiatry. 2015;15:48 10.1186/s12888-015-0423-z [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 130.Muralidhara Yadiyal B, Aruna G. Psychopathology among suicide attempters: A cross-sectional study. Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology. 2011;5(1):5–8. . [Google Scholar]
- 131.Naidoo S, Schlebusch L. Sociodemographic and clinical profiles of suicidal patients requiring admission to hospitals south of Durban. South African Family Practice. 2013;55(4):373–9. [Google Scholar]
- 132.Narang RL, Mishra BP, Nitesh M. Attempted suicide in ludhiana. Indian J Psychiatry. 2000;42(1):83–7. Epub 2000/01/01. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 133.Ndosi NK, Waziri MC. The nature of parasuicide in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Soc Sci Med. 1997;44(1):55–61. [Google Scholar]
- 134.Ozdel O, Varma G, Atesci FC, Oguzhanoglu NK, Karadag F, Amuk T. Characteristics of suicidal behavior in a Turkish sample. Crisis. 2009;30(2):90–3. Epub 2009/06/16. 10.1027/0227-5910.30.2.90 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 135.Pandey A, Singh H, Dalai P, Tripathi A, Dutt K, Sinha P. Psychiatric Morbidity in Suicide attempters attending University Hospital of North India. Delhi Psychiatry Journal. 2013;16(1):128–33. [Google Scholar]
- 136.Parkar SR, Dawani V, Weiss MG. Clinical diagnostic and sociocultural dimensions of deliberate self-harm in Mumbai, India. Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2006;36(2):223–38. 10.1521/suli.2006.36.2.223 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 137.Parkar SR, Dawani V, Weiss MG. Gender, suicide, and the sociocultural context of deliberate self-harm in an urban general hospital in Mumbai, India. Cult Med Psychiatry. 2008;32(4):492–515. 10.1007/s11013-008-9109-z [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 138.Pearson V, Phillips MR, He F, Ji H. Attempted Suicide among Young Rural Women in the People's Republic of China: Possibilities for Prevention. Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2002;32(4):359–69. 10.1521/suli.32.4.359.22345 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 139.Pérez-Olmos I, Rodríguez-Sandoval E, Dussán-Buitrago M, Ayala-Aguilera J. Psychiatric and social characterisation of suicide attempts treated at a children's clinic, 2003–2005 [Spanish]. Rev Salud Pública. 2007;9:230–40. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 140.Qusar MS, Morshed NM, Azad MAK, Kader MA, Shams SF, Ahmed MF, et al. Psychiatric Morbidity Among Suicide Attempters Who Needed ICU Intervention. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Journal. 2010;2(2):5 Epub 2010-04-09. 10.3329/bsmmuj.v2i2.4761 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
- 141.Read GFH. Trends in an adolescent and young adult parasuicide population presenting at a psychiatric emergency unit: a descriptive study. Int J Adolesc Med Health. 1997;9(4):249–70. 10.1515/ijamh.1997.9.4.249 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 142.Rezaie L, Khazaie H, Soleimani A, Schwebel DC. Is self-immolation a distinct method for suicide? A comparison of Iranian patients attempting suicide by self-immolation and by poisoning. Burns. 2011;37(1):159–63. Epub 2010/08/17. 10.1016/j.burns.2010.07.003 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 143.Risal A, Sharma PP. Psychiatric manifestations of patients admitted for intentional self harm in a tertiary care hospital. Indian J Psychiatry. 2011;1:S61 . [Google Scholar]
- 144.Santos SA, Lovisi G, Legay L, Abelha L. Prevalence of mental disorders associated with suicide attempts treated at an emergency hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [Portuguese]. Cad Saude Publica. 2009;25(9):2064–74. 10.1590/s0102-311x2009000900020 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 145.Sathish S, Kishan P, Sanjay Kumar ND, Sharma S. Psychiatric morbidity in suicide attempters. Indian J Psychiatry. 2016;58:S80. [Google Scholar]
- 146.Shakeri J, Farnia V, Abdoli N, Akrami MR, Arman F, Shakeri H. The risk of repetition of attempted suicide among Iranian women with psychiatric disorders as quantified by the suicide behaviors questionnaire. Oman Med J. 2015;30(3):173–80. 10.5001/omj.2015.38 . [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 147.Sharma RC. Attempted suicide in himachal pradesh. Indian J Psychiatry. 1998;40(1):50–4. Epub 1998/01/01. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 148.Sheikholeslami H, Kani C, Ziaee A. Attempted suicide among Iranian population. Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2008;38(4):456–66. Epub 2008/08/30. 10.1521/suli.2008.38.4.456 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 149.Simsek Z, Demir C, Er G, Munir KM. Evaluation of attempted suicide in emergency departments in Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey. Journal of Public Health (Germany). 2013;21(4):325–31. . [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 150.Srivastava MK, Sahoo RN, Ghotekar LH, Dutta S, Danabalan M, Dutta TK, et al. Risk factors associated with attempted suicide: a case control study. Indian J Psychiatry. 2004;46(1):33–8. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 151.Sun L, Zhang J. Gender differences among medically serious suicide attempters aged 15–54 years in rural China. Psychiatry Res. 2017;252:57–62. 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.02.042 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 152.Zhang J, Liu Y, Sun L. Life satisfaction and degree of suicide intent: A test of the strain theory of suicide. Compr Psychiatry. 2017;74:1–8. 10.1016/j.comppsych.2016.12.002 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 153.Thalagala N, Fernando D. Attempted suicides in kurunegala district: circumstances and risk factors. Journal of the College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka. 2003;8:38–45. [Google Scholar]
- 154.Thanh HT, Jiang GX, Van TN, Minh DP, Rosling H, Wasserman D. Attempted suicide in Hanoi, Vietnam. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2005;40(1):64–71. 10.1007/s00127-005-0849-6 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 155.Trabelsi I, Maamri A, Bahrini L, Moula O, Zalila H. Clinical and environmental features associated with Tunisian patients who committed a suicide attempt. Eur Psychiatry. 2015;1:1816 . [Google Scholar]
- 156.Unni KE, Rotti SB, Chandrasekaran R. An exploratory study of the motivation in suicide attempters. Indian J Psychiatry. 1995;37(4):169–75. Epub 1995/10/01. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 157.Vasquez-Rojas R, Quijano-Serrano M. When a Suicide Attempt is Kid's Stuff [Spanish]. Rev Colomb Psiquiatr. 2013;43 Suppl 1:36–46. Epub 2013/01/01. 10.1016/j.rcp.2013.11.004 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 158.Vishnuvardhan G, Saddichha S. Psychiatric comorbidity and gender differences among suicide attempters in Bangalore, India. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2012;34(4):410–4. 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2012.03.017 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 159.Wang W, Ding L, Wen C, Liao Z, Wu S. Attempters suicide in people aged 18 and older in Xiamen City [Chinese]. Chinese Mental Health Journal. 2012;26:332–6. [Google Scholar]
- 160.Wei S, Yan H, Chen W, Liu L, Bi B, Li H, et al. Gender-specific differences among patients treated for suicide attempts in the emergency departments of four general hospitals in Shenyang, China. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2013;35(1):54–8. 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2012.10.007 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 161.Wei S, Liu L, Bi B, Li H, Hou J, Chen W, et al. Comparison of impulsive and nonimpulsive suicide attempt patients treated in the emergency departments of four general hospitals in Shenyang, China. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2013;35(2):186–91. 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2012.10.015 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 162.Xiao C-L, Li X-Y, Zhang Y-P, Phillips MR. Characteristics of suicide attempters who ingested pesticides and those who used other methods. [Chinese]. Chinese Mental Health Journal. 2011;25(2):128–33. [Google Scholar]
- 163.Li X, Phillips MR, Cohen A. Indepth interviews with 244 female suicide attempters and their associates in northern China: understanding the process and causes of the attempt. Crisis. 2012;33(2):66–72. 10.1027/0227-5910/a000108 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 164.Li X, Xu Y, Wang Y, Yang R, Zhang C, Ji H, et al. Characteristics of serious suicide attempts treated in general hospitals. [Chinese]. Chinese Mental Health Journal. 2002;16(10):681–4. [Google Scholar]
- 165.Li X, Yang R, Zhang C. A case-control study on attempted suicide. [Chinese]. Chung Hua Liu Hsing Ping Hsueh Tsa Chih Chinese Journal of Epidemiology. 2001;22(4):281–3. . [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 166.Li X, Phillips MR, Wang Y, Yang R, Zhang C, Ji H, et al. The comparison of impulsive and non-impulsive attempted suicide [Chinese]. Chinese Journal of Mental and Nervous Diseases. 2003;29(27–31). [Google Scholar]
- 167.Cui S, Yang R, He F, Zheng Y. Case-control analysis and follow-up study on risk factors of suicide attempt in a rural population in Shandong Province. [Chinese]. Wei Sheng Yan Jiu. 2003;32(6):562–4. Epub 2004/02/18. . [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 168.Eddleston M, Phillips MR. Self poisoning with pesticides. BMJ. 2004;328(7430):42–4. Epub 2004/01/03. 10.1136/bmj.328.7430.42 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 169.Marecek J. Young Women's Suicide in Sri Lanka: Cultural, Ecological, and Psychological Factors. Asian Journal of Counselling. 2006;13(1):63–92. [Google Scholar]
- 170.Phillips MR. Rethinking the role of mental illness in suicide. Am J Psychiatry. 2010;167(7):731–3. Epub 2010/07/03. 10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.10040589 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 171.Mishara BL, Weisstub DN. The legal status of suicide: A global review. Int J Law Psychiatry. 2016;44:54–74. Epub 2015/09/17. 10.1016/j.ijlp.2015.08.032 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 172.Chan KP, Hung SF, Yip PS. Suicide in response to changing societies. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 2001;10(4):777–95. Epub 2001/10/09. . [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 173.Gunnell D, Knipe D, Chang S-S, Pearson M, Konradsen F, Lee WJ, et al. Prevention of suicide with regulations aimed at restricting access to highly hazardous pesticides: a systematic review of the international evidence. Lancet Global Health. 2017. 10.1016/S2214-109X(17)30299-1 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 174.Iemmi V, Bantjes J, Coast E, Channer K, Leone T, McDaid D, et al. Suicide and poverty in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review. Lancet Psychiatry. 2016;3(8):774–83. 10.1016/S2215-0366(16)30066-9 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 175.Knipe DW, Carroll R, Thomas KH, Pease A, Gunnell D, Metcalfe C. Association of socio-economic position and suicide/attempted suicide in low and middle income countries in South and South-East Asia—a systematic review. BMC Public Health. 2015;15(1):1055 10.1186/s12889-015-2301-5 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 176.Devries K, Watts C, Yoshihama M, Kiss L, Schraiber LB, Deyessa N, et al. Violence against women is strongly associated with suicide attempts: Evidence from the WHO multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence against women. Soc Sci Med. 2011;73(1):79–86. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.05.006 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 177.Barnes MC, Haase AM, Bard AM, Donovan JL, Davies R, Dursley S, et al. HOPE: Help fOr People with money, employment, benefit or housing problems: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Pilot Feasibility Stud. 2017;3:44 Epub 2017/10/19. 10.1186/s40814-017-0179-y [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 178.Chen YY, Wu KC, Yousuf S, Yip PS. Suicide in Asia: opportunities and challenges. Epidemiol Rev. 2012;34(1):129–44. Epub 2011/12/14. 10.1093/epirev/mxr025 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 179.Patel V, Ramasundarahettige C, Vijayakumar L, Thakur JS, Gajalakshmi V, Gururaj G, et al. Suicide mortality in India: a nationally representative survey. Lancet. 2012;379(9834):2343–51. Epub 2012/06/26. 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60606-0 . [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 180.Abramsky T, Devries K, Kiss L, Nakuti J, Kyegombe N, Starmann E, et al. Findings from the SASA! Study: a cluster randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of a community mobilization intervention to prevent violence against women and reduce HIV risk in Kampala, Uganda. BMC Med. 2014;12:122 Epub 2014/09/25. 10.1186/s12916-014-0122-5 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 181.Demyttenaere K, Bruffaerts R, Posada-Villa J, Gasquet I, Kovess V, Lepine JP, et al. Prevalence, severity, and unmet need for treatment of mental disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys. JAMA. 2004;291(21):2581–90. Epub 2004/06/03. 10.1001/jama.291.21.2581 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 182.Bruckner TA, Scheffler RM, Shen G, Yoon J, Chisholm D, Morris J, et al. The mental health workforce gap in low- and middle-income countries: a needs-based approach. Bull World Health Organ. 2011;89(3):184–94. Epub 2011/03/08. 10.2471/BLT.10.082784 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 183.Nadkarni A, Weobong B, Weiss HA, McCambridge J, Bhat B, Katti B, et al. Counselling for Alcohol Problems (CAP), a lay counsellor-delivered brief psychological treatment for harmful drinking in men, in primary care in India: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet. 2017;389(10065):186–95. Epub 2016/12/19. 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31590-2 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 184.Patel V, Weobong B, Weiss HA, Anand A, Bhat B, Katti B, et al. The Healthy Activity Program (HAP), a lay counsellor-delivered brief psychological treatment for severe depression, in primary care in India: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet. 2017;389(10065):176–85. 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31589-6 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
Associated Data
This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.
Supplementary Materials
Data Availability Statement
All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files