Resource Tag: ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

Air pollution poses well-established risks to physical health, but little is known about its effects on mental health. We study the relationship between wildfire smoke exposure and suicide risk in the United States in 2007 to 2019 using data on all deaths by suicide and satellite-based measures of wildfire smoke and ambient fine particulate matter […]

Recently developed measures of genetic liability to suicide attempt may convey unique information regarding an individual’s risk of suicidal behavior. We calculated a polygenic risk score for suicide attempt (SA-PRS) for soldiers of European ancestry who participated in the Army STARRS New Soldier Study (NSS; n = 6573) or Pre/Post Deployment Study (PPDS; n = 4900). Multivariable logistic regression models were […]

When suicidologists consider how the environment may impact suicide, they typically focus on the social and economic environment and the interpersonal environment. For the former, Lester and Yang (1997) documented how factors such as the business cycle might impact suicide rates while, many years ago, Platt (1984) showed that unemployment increased suicide rates. As for the interpersonal environment, in […]

This paper considers how Indigenous studies can inform the evolution of critical research on suicide. Aligned with critiques of mainstream suicidology, these methodological approaches provide a roadmap for structural analysis of complex systems and logics in which the phenomenon of suicide emerges. Moving beyond mere naming of social determinants of suicide and consistent with calls […]

This paper considers how Indigenous studies can inform the evolution of critical research on suicide. Aligned with critiques of mainstream suicidology, these methodological approaches provide a roadmap for structural analysis of complex systems and logics in which the phenomenon of suicide emerges. Moving beyond mere naming of social determinants of suicide and consistent with calls […]

Objective  To examine characteristics and precipitating circumstances of childhood suicide. Design, Setting, and Participants  This qualitative study examined restricted-use data from the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) regarding child suicide decedents aged 5 to 11 years in the US from 2013 to 2017. The NVDRS is a state-based surveillance system that collects data on suicide and […]

Although numerous studies have investigated the effect of green space on mental health, as yet, little is known about the association between green space and suicide. To address this deficit, we conducted the first Japan-wide study of the relationship between green space and suicide mortality. Results from spatial analyses of municipality-level panel data for the […]

Suicide in the US has increased in the last decade, across virtually every age and demographic group. Parallel increases have occurred in non-fatal self-harm as well. Research on suicide across the world has consistently demonstrated that suicide shares many properties with a communicable disease, including person-to-person transmission and point-source outbreaks. This essay illustrates the communicable […]

Background Childhood maltreatment has been associated with suicide thoughts and attempts; however, few longitudinal studies have assessed risk of suicidality into adulthood. Fewer have examined potential mediators (psychiatric symptoms and environmental vulnerability factors). Methods Prospective cohort design. Children with documented cases of maltreatment (N = 495, ages 0–11) were matched with non-maltreated children (N = 395) and followed up […]

Research on the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and adolescents’ risk of nonfatal suicidal behavior is scarce. We used California survey data to examine associations between measures of objective neighborhood quality (levels of violent crime, property crime, and socioeconomic disadvantage) and subjective neighborhood quality (perceptions of neighborhood safety and social cohesion) and adolescents’ self‐reported suicidal ideation […]

This paper presents a tentative typology of genetic and environmental pathways to suicidal behavior. Ten pathways are proposed and briefly illustrated: (i) direct effects from psychiatric disorders; (ii) direct effects from personality; (iii) direct effects of early adversity; (iv) direct effects of current adversity; (v) indirect effects of genes on selection into adversity (gene-environment correlation); […]

Objective  To evaluate whether interventions to green vacant urban land can improve self-reported mental health. Design, Setting, and Participants  This citywide cluster randomized trial examined 442 community-dwelling sampled adults living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, within 110 vacant lot clusters randomly assigned to 3 study groups. Participants were followed up for 18 months preintervention and postintervention. This trial was […]

Background and objective Suicide is a worldwide health problem and climatological characteristics have been associated with suicide behavior. However, approaches such as the Knowledge Discovery in Database are not frequently used to search for an association between climatological characteristics and suicide. The aim of the present study was to assess the association between weather data […]

Although the effects of social and individual risk factors of suicide have been widely investigated, evidence of environmental effects of exposure to air pollution is scarce. We investigated the effects of ambient air pollution on suicide mortality in Guangzhou, China during 2003−2012. Suicide risk was positively associated with ambient air pollution levels. This finding would […]

Highlights: Evidence supports both heritable and environmental influences in depression and suicidal behavior risk. GeneÐenvironment interaction (G _ E) studies may be useful to investigate the impact of both sources of risk. So far, within this context, only few results have been obtained in both depression and suicidal behavior, though some genes seems reliably moderating […]

Background: Little is known about suicide risk among offspring of parents hospitalized for schizophrenia and the mechanisms behind this association. Method: We applied a nested case-control design based on linkage of Swedish population-based registers. Among 12- to 30-year-old offspring, we identified 68 318 offspring with suicidal behavior (attempted and completed suicide) and their parents. Five […]

In this commentary, Khan comments on the study of Gradus et al on acute stress & suicide. Khan makes 3 comments on the study, saying these could be areas for future study: the nature of acute stress; individual resiliency factors; & whether or not individuals who are suicidal immediately following acute stress are at higher […]

A number of recent studies have shown epigenetic alterations associated with suicidal behaviour. These epigenetic mechanisms, which alter gene expression via alternative mechanisms to the coding DNA sequence, result from environmental effects acting on the genome. The present review briefly describes the main epigenetic mechanisms involved in the regulation of gene expression & discusses recent […]

This retrospective study examines 20 years of American county-specific mortality date, 1979-1998. County altitude was obtained from the US Geological Survey. Although there was a negative correlation between county altitude & all-cause mortality, there was a strong positive correlation between altitude & suicide rate. Mean altitude differed in the 50 counties with the highest suicide […]

The effect of the 2004 tsuanmi on suicide rates in Sri Lanka were investigated. The number of suicides in the 2 years prior & 1 year after the tsunami were examined. Data from districts affected by the tsunami were compared with those from unaffected districts. No significant differences were found between the number of suicides […]

This study examined whether the 2004 Niigata-Chuetsu earthquake in Japan affected long-term mortality from suicide. A comparative study was conducted of suicide rates during the 5-year period preceding & the 3-year period following the earthquake in the disaster area & a control area. In men, baseline suicide mortality rates were 48.4 per 100,000 person-years in […]

This study evaluated whether a traumatic experience such as an earthquake has any effect on the probability of suicide, especially in those who seem psychologically healthy. Prevention & support parameters are evaluated. Two groups of 35 people each were compared regarding their probability of dying by suicide. One group had experienced an earthquake & the […]

In this letter to the editor, the authors report on a study in which they compared the suicide rates before, during, & after periods of peak atmospheric pollen. During the treee allergy season there was a two-fold increase in the rate of nonviolent suicides among younger females in the peak-pollen period compared with the prepollen […]