ABSTRACT
We provide an overview of the evidence linking psychosocial factors with future suicide risk. To do so, we aggregated results from published reports of prospective cohort studies with verified suicide events (mortality or, less commonly, hospitalization) alongside analyses of new data. There is a good deal of evidence indicating that low socioeconomic status (in both affluent and resource-poor countries) is associated with an increased risk of suicide, including the suggestion that the recent global economic recession has been responsible for an increase in suicide deaths and, by proxy, attempts. Low scores on tests of intelligence (particularly strongly), serious mental illness, chronic psychological distress, social isolation and lower height (a marker of childhood insults, including poverty, poor diet) were also consistently related to suicide risk. Although there is a reasonable prima facie case for personality type, psychosocial stress and pre-adult factors (e.g. bullying) being risk indices for suicide, the paucity of studies means it is not possible to draw clear conclusions about their status. Most suicide intervention strategies have not focused on the modification of psychosocial factors, partly because evidence linking psychosocial factors with suicide risk is, as we have demonstrated herein, in its infancy, or, where it does exist (e.g. cognition, personality type), selected factors are not obviously modifiable.
