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Research on Suicide Assessment, Prevention and Management
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Research on Suicide Assessment, Prevention and Management

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Global Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 2321

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Masahito Fushimi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Akita University Health Center, Akita University, 1-1 Tegatagakuen-machi, Akita 010-8502, Japan
Interests: psychiatry; work psychology; occupational health; mental health; stress
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Suicide carries a significant global burden. Despite being preventable, research on suicide and its prevention has received inadequate financial and human investment. This Special Issue provides a comprehensive overview of suicide, attempt assessments, and prevention efforts around the world, identifying evidence-based approaches for developing policies and programs which can be adapted to different settings. This Special Issue is expected to serve as a foundation for the development and implementation of comprehensive suicide prevention strategies around the world. Suicide prevention begins with surveillance in order to define and understand the problem, followed by the identification of risk, protective factors, and effective interventions, and, finally, implementation, which includes intervention evaluation and improvement, a review of the surveillance, and moving to the next step. There must also be vision, political will, leadership, stakeholder buy-in, and, crucially, funding to help support suicide prevention, along with data to guide its development, implementation, and evaluation. The incidence, characteristics, and methods of suicidal behavior vary across regions, demographic groups, and time. Thus, there is a need to understand the ways to improve the monitoring of suicidal behavior, identify the causes of large variations in suicide rates across regions and countries, and determine the modifiable factors influencing suicide rates through policies and programs.

Considering the above, this Special Issue welcomes papers related to the following:

  • Assessment and management of suicidal behavior, mental health issues, and substance use disorders;
  • Follow-up and community support for discharged patients;
  • Improved access to health care (improved mental health literacy);
  • Increased awareness of mental health and suicide (e.g., reduced stigma);
  • Intervention and postvention support for vulnerable groups;
  • Interventions related to community and relationship risk factors;
  • Interventions related to health system and societal or individual risk factors;
  • Management of gatekeeper training and crisis support services;
  • Measures for responsible media reporting;
  • Mental health policies intended to reduce suicide mortality;
  • Restricted access to tools (e.g., pesticides, firearms, and hazardous gasses).

Dr. Masahito Fushimi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • community support
  • gatekeeper
  • health literacy
  • intervention
  • mental health
  • postvention
  • prevention
  • risk factor
  • suicidal behavior
  • suicide

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

8 pages, 242 KiB  
Article
A Worldwide Study of the Relationship Between Gini Coefficients and Suicide Rates
by Juncheng Lyu, Jie Zhang and Dorian A. Lamis
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2025, 22(7), 1110; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22071110 - 15 Jul 2025
Viewed by 215
Abstract
Background: The Gini coefficient measures how much the distribution of income or consumption within an economy deviates from an equal distribution. However, there has been a paucity of research examining the association between Gini coefficients and suicide rates in the countries of the [...] Read more.
Background: The Gini coefficient measures how much the distribution of income or consumption within an economy deviates from an equal distribution. However, there has been a paucity of research examining the association between Gini coefficients and suicide rates in the countries of the world. Objective: To prove the hypothesis that the higher the Gini coefficient, the larger the relative deprivation and the higher the suicide rate, and further to verify the effect of relative deprivation on suicidality. Methods: Suicide rates for different countries were obtained from the World Health Organization (WHO) website. The Gini coefficients for the countries were taken from the World Bank website. Correlations were performed between the suicide rates and the Gini coefficients. SPSS 21.0 was used to analyze the data. Results: Overall the suicide rates and Gini coefficients decreased slightly from 2017 to 2019. There was an overall negative association between Gini coefficients and suicide rates in the countries studied. However, a different trend was observed in lower-income countries, where higher Gini coefficients were associated with higher suicide rates. The correlation between Gini coefficients and the suicide rates of females was larger than males in low- and high-income countries. However, the correlation for males was larger than females in lower-middle- and upper-middle-income countries. Conclusions: Current data show that Gini coefficients are negatively associated with suicide rates, but there is a different trend for lower-income countries. Economic development and the strain theory of suicide can be applied to explain the effects of relative deprivation on suicidality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Suicide Assessment, Prevention and Management)
18 pages, 852 KiB  
Article
Locating Meaning: Health Professionals’ Views on the Psychological and Clinical Significance of Self-Injury Sites
by Kathryn Jane Gardner, Rachel Smith, Gillian Rayner, Gary Lamph, Lucie Moores, Robyn Crossan, Laura Bisland, Nicky Danino and Peter Taylor
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2025, 22(7), 979; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22070979 - 21 Jun 2025
Viewed by 575
Abstract
Background: This study explored how health professionals construct clinical and psychological meaning based on the location of self-injury on the body, particularly in relation to concealed or visible injuries and how they might inform attributions about risk, self-injury functions, and distress. Methods: This [...] Read more.
Background: This study explored how health professionals construct clinical and psychological meaning based on the location of self-injury on the body, particularly in relation to concealed or visible injuries and how they might inform attributions about risk, self-injury functions, and distress. Methods: This study used qualitative thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 19 health professionals with experience working with self-injury, exploring perceptions and attributions about self-injury in different body locations. Results: Seven themes emerged. In some cases, staff’s attributions aligned with the findings from studies of those who self-injure, such as injuries to areas such as the neck are higher risk. Location was one factor among others, such as injury severity, that staff considered when assessing the risk of infection or suicide. Staff often viewed visible injuries as less risky and attributed them to interpersonal communicative functions, and concealed injuries to intrapersonal factors, though not all staff shared these perspectives. Some staff considered other potential drivers of injury location, including past experiences such as trauma, demographic factors, mental health diagnoses, and exposure to social influences. Some staff described the practical determinants of injury location, such as ease of access, and considered the impact of self-injury location on themselves and their colleagues. Conclusions: Injury location can influence staff perceptions of risk, self-injury functions and distress, underscoring the need for individualized assessment and formulation of each self-injury episode to ensure appropriate risk management. Staff training should be adapted to address injury location to improve understanding, raise awareness of related attributions, and enhance the development of clinical skills. Organizations should support staff in their role due to the potential emotional impact of working with individuals who self-injure and are at risk of suicide. Future research should investigate whether location-based attributions are associated with unintended clinical consequences, such as inaccuracies in risk assessment and formulation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Suicide Assessment, Prevention and Management)
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10 pages, 375 KiB  
Article
Colorectal Cancer and the Risk of Mortality Among Individuals with Suicidal Ideation
by Srikanta Banerjee, Jagdish Khubchandani and Stanley Nkemjika
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2025, 22(6), 862; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22060862 - 30 May 2025
Viewed by 525
Abstract
Suicide is a major public health problem that has grown at alarming rates in the last two decades. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common causes of cancer deaths in the United States in both males and females. However, the influence [...] Read more.
Suicide is a major public health problem that has grown at alarming rates in the last two decades. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common causes of cancer deaths in the United States in both males and females. However, the influence of suicidal ideation (SI) on the association between CRC and risk of mortality has not been well examined. Methods: For this study, the 2005–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a nationally representative survey of United States adults aged 20 years or older, was utilized. CRC survivorship was determined from self-reported data on CRC, and mortality was ascertained by linking the NHANES data with death files from the National Death Index up to December 2019. Suicidal ideation (SI) confirmation was based on a response to a survey question. Results: People with SI had a significantly higher rate (12.3% vs. 7.5%, p < 0.01) of mortality than those without SI. Also, individuals with CRC (2.4%) had a statistically significant higher rate of frequent SI (almost daily) than individuals without CRC (0.6%). Upon a mean follow-up of 7.5 years, more CRC survivors (34.6%) died than non-CRC survivors (7.6%). The adjusted HR was elevated HR = 5.4 among individuals who had CRC and SI but close to 1.0 among individuals who had a history of CRC alone after adjusting for demographic and health variables. Conclusions: In this first national study in the U.S., we found that SI and CRC combined had worse mortality outcomes than CRC alone. Additionally, people with CRC were more likely to experience frequent SI. Our findings underscore the importance of mental healthcare and psychological well-being promotion among individuals with chronic diseases and the high need for integrated care approaches that address both physical and mental health needs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Suicide Assessment, Prevention and Management)
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