Project Safe Guard: Challenges and opportunities of a universal rollout of peer-delivered lethal means safety counseling at a US military installation

Introduction The US Department of Defense recommends lethal means safety counseling (LMSC) to promote firearm injury prevention via secure storage of personal firearms. We describe the rollout of a universal, peer-delivered adaptation of Project Safe Guard (PSG)—a brief, single-session LMSC discussion—at a US Space Force installation. Method Program evaluation data were collected via anonymous, voluntary, […]

Interpersonal violent injury and subsequent risk of suicide and deliberate self-harm: A register-based national cohort study from Norway, 2010–2018

Background Interpersonal violence is a leading cause of morbidity, with potentially severe adverse consequences for the mental health of the injured persons. The extent to which violent injury is associated with subsequent suicidal behavior, however, remains unclear. This study aimed to examine how violent injury was associated with subsequent deliberate self-harm and death by suicide. […]

Gun violence exposure and suicide among black adults

Importance  Black individuals are disproportionately exposed to gun violence in the US. Suicide rates among Black US individuals have increased in recent years. Objective  To evaluate whether gun violence exposures (GVEs) are associated with suicidal ideation and behaviors among Black adults. Design, Setting, and Participants  This cross-sectional study used survey data collected from a nationally representative sample of […]

Social contagion, violence, and suicide among adolescents

Social Contagion is defined as the spread of behaviors, attitudes, and affect through crowds and other types of social aggregates from one member to another. Adolescents are prone to social contagion because they may be especially susceptible to peer influence and social media. In this article, we provide a brief review of the most recent […]

Disproportionate burden of violence: Explaining racial and ethnic disparities in potential years of life lost among homicide victims, suicide decedents, and homicide-suicide perpetrators

Research indicates that the burden of violent death in the United States is disproportionate across racial and ethnic groups. Yet documented disparities in rates of violent death do not capture the full extent of this inequity. Recent studies examining race-specific rates of potential years of life lost—a summary measure of premature mortality—indicate that persons of […]

Gender-based violence and suicide among gender-diverse populations in the United States

Objectives: Transgender populations report higher suicidal ideation (SI) and suicide attempts than the general population. This study sought to identify predictors of suicide in individuals with diverse gender identities, including transgender women; transgender men; and gender-nonbinary, genderqueer, and crossdressing individuals within various racial/ethnic groups. Methods: Secondary analyses were conducted using the United States Transgender Survey (N = 27,204). […]

The prevalence and association of adverse childhood experiences with suicide risk behaviors among adolescents and youth in Zimbabwe

Suicide poses a significant public health concern, particularly among adolescents and youth exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). However, little research exists on understanding ACEs’ prevalence and suicidality consequences in Zimbabwe. Therefore, this study examined the prevalence and association between individual and cumulative ACEs with suicide risk among adolescents and youth in Zimbabwe. The study […]

Depression, suicide attempts, and exposure to physical attacks: A nationwide cross‑sectional survey in Mexico

Aim This study investigated the relationship between direct exposure to physical attacks and mental health (depression and suicide attempts) in the Mexican adult population. It also examined biological sex as a possible effect modifier. Subject and methods A representative sample of 13,391 adults from the 2021 National Health and Nutrition Survey of Mexico (ENSANUT) was […]

American gun violence & mental illness: Reducing risk, restoring health, respecting rights & reviving communities

Intentional injuries claimed nearly two hundred lives every day in the United States in 2020, about two-thirds of them suicides, each a story of irretrievable human loss. This essay addresses the complex intersection of injurious behavior with mental illness and access to firearms. It explores what more can be done to stop gun violence while […]

Self-reported traumatic brain injury in a sample of impulsive violent offenders: Neuropsychiatric correlates and possible “dose effects”

Background Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health problem that may be associated with numerous behavioral problems, including impulsivity, aggression and violence. Rates of self-reported TBI are high within offender populations, but the extent to which TBI is causally implicated in causing illegal behavior is unclear. This study examined the psychological and functional […]

Suicide under the Nazi-regime: A case-control study among Amsterdam Jews

Objective: Jewish suicides increased heavily under Nazi-rule. This research investigated risk factors for dying from suicide according to sociodemographic characteristics, local context, and time periods. Methods: Nazi-registration of Amsterdam residents of Jewish origin in 1941 linked to death and suicide lists. The added suicides after the Nazi-invasion (1940, n = 115) and the suicides when deportation trains […]

U.S. gun violence in 2021: An accounting of a public health crisis

Gun violence is an ongoing public health crisis in the United States that impacts the health and wellbeing of all of us. In 2020, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. experienced an unprecedented spike in gun homicides. Many believed that this spike would be short-lived; levels of gun violence would subside […]

Big ideas series: Self-regulation shift theory: trauma, suicide, and violence

Background Traumatic stress, suicide, and impulsive violence arguably are three of the most consequential problems facing societies today. Self-regulation shift theory is introduced to capture the underlying coping dynamics involved in these three grave challenges. Objectives Self-regulation shift theory, based in a nonlinear dynamical systems framework, focuses on critical psychological self-regulation thresholds and the role […]

Association of workplace violence and bullying with later suicide risk: A multicohort study and meta-analysis of published data

Background: Workplace offensive behaviours, such as violence and bullying, have been linked to psychological symptoms, but their potential impact on suicide risk remains unclear. We aimed to assess the association of workplace violence and bullying with the risk of death by suicide and suicide attempt in multiple cohort studies. Methods: In this multicohort study, we used individual-participant […]

Mental health nurses’ attitudes towards risk assessment: An integrative systematic review

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Risk assessment and risk management are considered to be important practices carried out by mental health nurses. Risk assessment can help keep mental health service users’ safe, but some nurses see it as a ‘tick the box’ exercise. Some studies have looked at nurses’ attitudes to risk assessment but […]

Black barbers as mental health advocates, and interpersonal violence and suicide preventors in the local community

Homicide and suicide rank first and third among the causes of death for Black males aged under 35 in the US. Black barbers trained in supporting the mental health of their customers are uniquely positioned to intervene in the deaths of young Black males due to their frequent and personal interactions. However, few studies have explored the […]

Association of workplace violence and bullying with later suicide risk: A multicohort study and meta-analysis of published data

Background: Workplace offensive behaviours, such as violence and bullying, have been linked to psychological symptoms, but their potential impact on suicide risk remains unclear. We aimed to assess the association of workplace violence and bullying with the risk of death by suicide and suicide attempt in multiple cohort studies. Methods: In this multicohort study, we used individual-participant […]

Witnessing community violence, gun carrying, and associations with substance use and suicide risk among high school students: Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2021

Community violence, including homicides involving firearms, is a significant public health concern. From 2019 to 2020, firearm-related homicides increased by 39% for youths and young adults aged 10–24 years, and rates of suicide by firearm increased by approximately 15% among the same age group. Findings from the nationally representative 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey were […]

What emotions do male prisoners experience in the lead-up to suicide and violence? A participatory visual method study

Rates of suicide and violence are higher amongst male prisoners than the general population. This study aimed to explore the emotional experiences of male prisoners in the distal and immediate lead-up to acts of suicide and violence. Nine male prisoners created drawings of their emotions in the lead-up to an act of suicide and/or violence. […]

Suicide by cop and civil liability for police

Suicide by cop (SbC) is a variant of victim-precipitated homicide. In SbC, a citizen intent on dying provokes police, often with credible threats of violence. A fatality results in ambiguity about manner of death (homicide versus suicide). Decedents’ families may raise claims of civil-rights violations, asserting insufficient restraint by officers. Police officers, when questioned, may […]

Research utility and limitations of textual data in the National Violent Death Reporting System: A scoping review and recommendations

Background Many studies of injury deaths rely on mortality data that contain limited contextual information about decedents. The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) is unique among such data systems in that each observation includes both quantitative variables and qualitative texts (called “narratives”) abstracted from original source documents. These narratives provide rich data regarding salient […]

Gender and racial differences for suicide attempters and ideators in a high-risk community corrections population

Background: Community corrections populations are a high-risk group who carry multiple suicide risk factors. Aims: To identify factors correlated with historical suicide attempts and ideation among African-American men, African-American women, White men, and White women in a community corrections population. Method: Self-report data from 18,753 enrollees in community corrections were analyzed. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to […]

Interpersonal violence victimization and suicidal ideation: An examination in criminal offenders

Background: Offenders are at elevated risk for interpersonal violence victimization (IVV), which is a risk factor for suicide-related outcomes in some populations, suggesting the importance of examining risk associated with IVV in offenders. Aims: The present study examined the association between IVV and suicidal ideation (SI) among criminal offenders in a pretrial jail diversion program in the […]