Suicide Attempts in the Population: What Counts?

Worldwide, the suicide rate increased by 60% in the past 45 years, with 1,000,000 deaths by suicide occurring in the year 2000. These researchers examined U.S. study data on 34,432 people to determine the impact of lifetime histories of 25 DSM-IV diagnoses (axis I anxiety, mood, psychotic, and substance use disorders and all 10 axis II diagnoses). They developed population-attributable fractions (PAFs) associated with each diagnosis; a PAF describes the reduction in incidence of a particular outcome in the general population if it had not been exposed to the examined factor.

A total of 1265 participants reported suicide attempts. The model was adjusted for sociodemographic factors, physical impairments, and mental disorders. PAFs were high f…