. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Sep 16.

Published in final edited form as: N Engl J Med. 2020 Jan 16;382(3):266–274. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra1902944

Table 1. Risk Factors for Suicide.

Risk Factor	Strength of Association with Suicide	Quality of Evidence^*
Precipitating factors
Drug and alcohol misuse¹²	Strong	High
Access to lethal means¹⁵	Moderate	High
Life events¹⁶	Moderate	High
New diagnosis of terminal or chronic	Moderate	Moderate
physical illness¹⁷
Media effects¹⁸	Weak	Moderate
Predisposing factors
Neuropsychiatric disorders¹²	Strong	High
Family history of suicidal behavior¹⁹	Strong	High
Previous suicide attempt²⁰	Moderate	High
Adverse childhood experiences²¹	Moderate	Moderate
Socioeconomic deprivation²²	Weak	Low

Low quality indicates reported associations alone, moderate quality indicates reported associations that have been replicated in different settings, and high quality indicates associations that are supported by evidence from quasi-experimental studies or clinical trials.