Globally, suicide is more prevalent in older adults compared with any other age group. Although some research has identified risk and protective factors for suicidal behaviour in older adults, further research is needed to provide an up-to-date overview to inform service delivery.

This study protocol describes mixed-methods research that will examine and identify factors associated with self-harm and suicide in older adults (aged 60 years and older) living in Ireland.

Four stages will be conducted. First, data from the National Self-Harm Registry of Ireland (NSHRI), will be used to examine recent hospital self-harm presentations of older adults, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, a case-series study will examine the adverse life events and psychosocial factors experienced by older adults before dying by suicide, using data from closed coronial files, through the Irish Probable Suicide Deaths Study (IPSDS). Third, risk of suicide following hospital-presenting self-harm will be examined among older adults via data linkage of the NSHRI and IPSDS. Finally, using semi-structured interviews, the service needs of older adults with suicidal behaviour will be explored from the perspectives of older adults, carers and healthcare practitioners.

A comprehensive understanding of adverse events and psychosocial factors associated with the suicidal behaviour of older adults is needed to inform service provision. This proposed research is aligned with (inter)national priorities, mental health promotion and suicide reduction policies. It aims to address gaps in mental healthcare interventions for older adults at risk of suicide.

Pronounced variations in suicide mortality persist across Europe. Understanding long-term temporal patterns through age, period and cohort (APC) effects, alongside suicide means, is essential for tailored prevention. This study aims to determine how suicide mortality rates in Europe have changed across APC dimensions at national and subregional levels.

Our analysis was restricted to European countries with complete age- and sex-specific suicide mortality data from 1990 to 2019 within the World Health Organization mortality database. The analysis comprised two components. The first component disentangled long-term suicide mortality trends (1990–2019) into APC dimensions using an age-period-cohort model via the National Cancer Institute’s APC Web Tool. The second component involved an assessment of suicide means, restricted to 2010–2019 and to countries with detailed International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) cause-of-death data.

In 2019, Europe recorded 47,793 male and 13,111 female suicide deaths. Overall suicide mortality rates declined in most subregions from 1990 to 2019, with the largest reductions among Eastern European men, from 77.81 (95% CI: 77.17–78.45) per 100,000 in the mid-1990s to 22.93 (95% CI: 22.58–23.28) per 100,000 by 2019, although this region retained the highest male suicide burden. Age-specific risk patterns differed markedly: among men, risk peaked in early adulthood and then declined in Eastern Europe, while in Western and Southern Europe, it was lower and more stable but rose after age 60; for women, risk was generally lower, with peaks in early adulthood in Eastern Europe and in midlife elsewhere. Period reflected continued improvement, especially in Eastern Europe where the period risk in 2015–2019 was approximately 60% lower than 2000–2004. Cohort effects similarly showed progressive declines. However, upward trends emerged among younger generations. In Northern Europe, the cohort relative risk for females increased from 0.73 (95% CI: 0.68–0.78) in the 1980 cohort to 0.90 (95% CI: 0.70–1.04) in the 2000 cohort. While the completeness of suicide means analysis varied by subregion, the primary data indicated that hanging was the predominant means for both sexes during 2010–2019.

Despite an overall decline, suicide mortality in Europe exhibits persistent regional and demographic differences. This study reveals emerging risks among younger cohorts, specifically Northern European women and Southern European men, signalling shifting patterns that are not apparent from overall temporal trends alone. This evolving risk profile calls for sustained surveillance and research to investigate the drivers of these population-specific vulnerabilities.

Predicting suicide risk remains a challenge. We examined whether neurocognitive performance on implicit associations toward suicide, motor speed, response inhibition, and executive functioning predicts suicide attempt and behavior in high-risk psychiatric patients.

Our sample (N = 298) consisted of inpatients (n = 161) and outpatients (n = 83) admitted for a suicide attempt (SA; n = 78), for suicidal ideation (SI; n = 76), or were non-suicidal psychiatric controls (PC; n = 90), and healthy controls (HC; n = 54). Participants were followed for 12 months, with follow-up assessments at 3-, 6-, and 12-months. Neurocognitive tasks were administered at baseline. Clinical symptom measures, suicidality, and electronic health record data were collected at each timepoint. ANCOVA was used to compare groups on neurocognitive performance, and logistic and Cox regressions examined whether neurocognitive performance predicted future actual suicide attempt and suicidal behaviors.

Participants had a mean age of 24.34 years (SD = 3.71). A total of 19 participants made an actual suicide attempt during the study. On neurocognitive tasks at baseline, the SA group had stronger implicit associations with death- and suicide-related words compared to the HC (d = 0.88, p < 0.001) and SI (d = 0.63, p = 0.005) groups and poorer executive functioning than the SI (d = 0.44, p = 0.043) group in multivariate models. Stronger implicit associations with death/suicide predicted higher risk of suicide attempts at the univariate (HR = 1.68 p = 000), but not multivariate level (HR = 1.17 p = 000), while slower motor speed predicted actual suicide attempts (HR = 1.81 p = 000) at the multivariate level.

Slower motor speed predicts actual suicide attempt and may help identify psychiatric patients who are at high risk for suicidal behavior.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exerted significant mental health impacts worldwide, with a major concern in the literature being its potential effect on suicide rates. Brazil, one of the countries most severely affected by the pandemic, still lacks clear evidence regarding the consequences of the crisis on self-inflicted deaths. This paper aims to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide rates in Brazil.

We employed an interrupted time series design with seasonal adjustments to estimate changes in suicide rates per 100,000 population. The analysis was based on deaths from all forms of self-inflicted injury, as classified by the International Classification of Diseases. We estimated trends for the total population, stratified by sex and administrative region.

Suicide rates increased significantly before the pandemic (β₁ = 0.00148, p < 0.001). No significant change in trend was observed after the onset of the pandemic at the national level (β₃ = 0.00092, p > 0.05). Among men, both the pre-pandemic trend (β₁ = 0.00236, p < 0.001) and the post-pandemic increase (β₃ = 0.00155, p < 0.05) were significant. For women, the pre-pandemic trend was modest (β₁ = 0.00065, p < 0.001), and the post-pandemic slope was not significant (β₃ = 0.00033, p = 0.10). Regionally, the Central-West (β₃ = 0.00217, p < 0.01) and North (β₃ = 0.00186, p < 0.05) experienced significant post-pandemic increases, while the Southeast (β₃ = 0.00087, p > 0.05) and South (β₃ = −0.00034, p > 0.05) showed no significant changes. Seasonal effects revealed consistent mid-year declines across all groups and regions.

The COVID-19 pandemic did not produce a statistically significant shift in national suicide trends but coincided with the persistence of pre-existing upward patterns in specific demographic and regional contexts. These findings underscore the need for targeted and region-specific suicide prevention strategies.

In The Netherlands, it is unknown whether the number of youth suicide-related emergency department visits has changed over time. Also, insight is needed in the hospital costs for managing these patients, as a first step toward the economic evaluation of suicide prevention measures.

This study examines (a) changes in emergency department-recorded suicide attempts, suicidal ideation and non-suicidal self-injury in youth, including repeat emergency department visits; and (b) related hospital costs for these patients, from a health insurer perspective.

In this cross-sectional study, data from various sources was combined to identify all youth aged ≤27 years visiting a Dutch inner-city emergency department between 2016 and 2023 for a suicide attempt, suicidal ideation or non-suicidal self-injury. Hospital records were reviewed manually to determine inclusion. Ambiguities were discussed within an expert panel and descriptive analyses, Poisson regression and logistic regression analyses were performed. For a subset of 30 patients, invoiced costs were determined.

The number of suicide attempts increased by approximately 5% annually, peaking in 2022 (n = 172); there were significantly more female patients (71%), and the median age was 21 years. Cases of suicidal ideation showed a similar trend, whereas the number of recorded non-suicidal self-injuries reduced. A total of 28.5% of all patients (n = 281) had one or multiple repeat visits for the above reasons. Median suicide attempt-related costs per case were €930, range €385–€33 473.

Since 2016, an increasing number of youth visited the emergency department of a Dutch hospital after a suicide attempt, but this increase does not seem to continue after 2022. Hospital-invoiced costs differ substantially between patients.

Although clinically framed as a public health concern, the meanings of suicide are fundamentally shaped by cultural narratives and visual representations.

To examine the evolution of sculptural representations of suicide from antiquity to the present, and to interpret these works through psychiatric and sociological lenses relevant to contemporary clinical and public health discourse.

A structured search across PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science (up to August 2025) was integrated with museum archives and art-historical catalogues. Selected sculptural works were analysed as interpretive case studies using iconographic, semiotic and contextual approaches. Interpretation focused on affective and relational processes such as psychological pain (psychache), shame, entrapment and social disconnection prioritising cultural formulation over retrospective diagnostic attribution in historical cases.

Sculptural representations frame suicide through shifting moral and social logics: from honour-bound self-death in antiquity and virtue-coded narratives in the early-modern period to interiority and estrangement in modernity. Contemporary public installations shift this focus towards visibility, urban space and prevention. These works externalise private suffering and structural conditions (e.g. isolation, stigma), actively shaping collective imaginaries of self-destruction.

Sculpture provides a unique medium for the translation of individual suffering and the collective meanings of suicide into public form. An interdisciplinary reading of these works supports culturally informed clinical reflection and contributes to ethically attentive public communication and prevention strategies.

C-reactive protein (CRP) has been studied in relation to bipolar disorder (BD) and suicidality independently. Although suicide risk is elevated in youth with BD, little is known about the association of CRP with suicidality in this population.

211 youth participated, including 23 BD with lifetime suicide attempts (BDSA), 45 BD with lifetime non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI; BDNSSI), 39 BD without lifetime suicide attempt or NSSI (BDNo-SA/NSSI), and 104 healthy controls (HC). Suicide attempts and NSSI were assessed systematically. Fasting blood samples yielded CRP levels. Primary analyses controlled for age, sex, and body mass index percentile.

CRP levels differed across groups (F3,204 = 3.40, p = 0.02, ηp2 = 0.05). In post hoc analyses, CRP levels were significantly higher among BDSA (3.44 ± 6.42 mg/L) vs HC (0.81 ± 0.90 mg/L; p < 0.01) and BDNo-SA/NSSI (1.42 ± 3.31 mg/L; p = 0.01) groups; however, no difference was seen with the BDNSSI group (1.83 ± 2.22 mg/L; p = 0.12). Between-group differences in CRP levels persisted in independent sensitivity analyses controlling for current mood symptoms, lifetime mania score, lifetime smoking, and medications, but not with lifetime depression score.

Suicide attempts among youth with BD are associated with elevated CRP. Given accessibility of CRP testing, the present findings have potential clinical implications. Larger, longitudinal studies with repeated measures are needed to examine time-varying associations between CRP and suicide risk among youth with BD.

Interpersonal violence is a known risk factor for suicide, but its impact across racial and ethnic groups, particularly among Black and Indigenous youth, remains underexplored.

We conducted a nationwide longitudinal study involving 9,788,264 individuals aged 10–29 years who were enrolled in the 100 Million Brazilian Cohort and linked to Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN), National Hospital Information System (SIH) and Mortality Information System (SIM) (2011–2018). Exposure was any recorded interpersonal violence; the outcome was suicide (ICD-10 X60–X84). Cox models adjusted for demographic, socioeconomic, household factors, prior psychiatric hospitalization, and self-harm. Analyses were stratified by race.

During follow-up, 92,287 (0·94%) individuals had a record of interpersonal violence, and 1,657 suicides were identified. Exposure to violence was associated with a higher risk of suicide (HR 2·92; 95% CI 2·06–4·15). Associations were strongest among Indigenous youth (HR 10.61; 95% CI 4.34–25.94), followed by Black youth (HR 3.14; 95% CI 1.92–5.14). No significant association was observed among White youth.

Interpersonal violence is a major risk factor for youth suicide in Brazil, disproportionately affecting Indigenous and Black populations. Addressing systemic racism and structural inequalities is essential for equitable suicide prevention.