Solving the gender paradox in adolescent suicide: Challenges and directions

The gender paradox in suicide has been described as early as 1998 (1), referring to the observation that while women demonstrated higher rates of suicide attempts, men had higher rates of death by suicide. This has prompted important epidemiological research into the gender differences in suicide, leading to consistent evidence supporting this observation. However, the biological basis for such gender differences is poorly understood, and there is increasing interest in the relationship between suicide, gender, and the underlying neurobiology. There is a pressing need to better understand both the psychosocial and neurobiological pathways of suicide, especially given the rise in suicide rates across all age groups in recent years.