AIM To determine whether antemortem blood levels of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and glucose predict completed suicide and, by extension, whether markers of glucose metabolism might be associated with a prosuicidal trait or state. METHOD From consecutively performed autopsies, samples of blood and vitreous humor from 17 suicide victims and 27 non-suicide controls were compared with regard to l...

BACKGROUND Depressive disorders greatly increase suicide risk; however, little is known about the contribution of comorbid anxiety disorders or anxiety symptoms to the risk of suicide death among depressed patients. We examined whether depressed veterans with comorbid anxiety had higher risks of suicide death. METHODS Using VA administrative databases we identified 887,859 patients with depre...

BACKGROUND Suicide is an important social tragic phenomenon which occurs by different tools or methods in different communities. Considering deliberate poisoning as a common and important method in Ilam province for suicide, the present study was launched to epidemiologically assess committing suicide in Ilam province, Iran, based on intentional poisoning. METHODS By a retrospective study, al...

In addition to its specific focus on selfdirected violence, the paper by Eddleston et al. in this issue of the Bulletin highlights how intersectoral collaboration can be crucial to furthering the cause of public health.1 With nearly 900 000 deaths from suicide every year, worldwide,2 suicide takes more lives than homicides and wars combined; it is commonly acknowledged that this figure is an un...

Studies of clinical cohorts and retrospective reports have identified psychiatric disorders as paramount risk factors for suicide. Much less is known about how self-reported mental health is related to completed suicide. To study the relation between self-reported mental health and risk of completed suicide, the authors prospectively followed a population-based Norwegian cohort of 61,588 men an...

BACKGROUND Previous research into religious service attendance as a protective factor against suicide has been conducted only retrospectively, with psychological autopsy studies using proxy informants of completed suicide, rather than prospectively, with completed suicide as a dependent variable. AIMS To determine whether individuals who frequently attended religious services were less likely...

We examined sleep difficulties preceding death in a sample of adolescent suicide completers as compared with a matched sample of community control adolescents. Sleep disturbances were assessed in 140 adolescent suicide victims using a psychological autopsy protocol and in 131 controls using a similar semi-structured psychiatric interview. Rates of sleep disturbances were compared between groups...

BMI has been inversely associated with risk of completed suicide in several cohort studies, but putative mechanisms for this association and its generalizability throughout the United States are uncertain. We ascertained recent population-based, state-level data on rates of obesity, completed suicide (by method), firearm ownership, smoking, major depression, income, education, white race, and n...