Workplace bullying and the association with suicidal ideation/thoughts and behaviour: A systematic review

Objectives: The established links between workplace bullying and poor mental health provide a prima facie reason to expect that workplace bullying increases the risk of suicidal ideation (thoughts) and behaviours. To date there has been no systematic summary of the available evidence. This systematic review summarises published studies reporting data on both workplace bullying and suicidal ideation, or behaviour. The review sought to ascertain the nature of this association and highlight future research directions.
Methods: Five electronic databases were searched. Two reviewers independently selected the articles for inclusion, and extracted information about study characteristics (sample, recruitment method, assessment and measures) and data reporting the association of workplace bullying with suicidal ideation and behaviour.
Results: Twelve studies were included in the final review – eight reported estimates of a positive association between workplace bullying and suicidal ideation, and a further four provided descriptive information about the prevalence of suicidal ideation in targets of bullying. Only one non-representative cross-sectional study examined the association between workplace bullying and suicidal behaviour. The results show an absence of high quality epidemiological studies (e.g. prospective cohort studies, which controlled for workplace characteristics and baseline psychiatric morbidity). While the available literature (pre-dominantly cross-sectional) suggests there is a positive association between workplace bullying and suicidal ideation, the low quality of studies prevents ruling out alternative explanations.
Conclusions: Further longitudinal, population-based research, adjusting for potential covariates (within and outside the workplace), is needed to determine the level of risk that workplace bullying independently contributes to suicidal ideation and behaviour.