Suicide

Suicide
Le Suicidé by Édouard Manet, c. 1877
Specialty	Psychiatry, clinical psychology, clinical social work
Usual onset	15–30 and 70+ years old[1]
Risk factors	Depression, previous attempts, bipolar disorder, autism, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders, alcoholism, substance abuse[2][3][4][5]
Prevention	Limiting access to methods of suicide, treating mental disorders and substance misuse, careful media reporting about suicide, improving social and economic conditions[2]
Frequency	12 per 100,000 per year[6]
Deaths	793,000 / 1.5% of deaths (2016)[7][8]

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death.^[9]

Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse.^{[2][3][5][10]} Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or academic difficulties), relationship problems (such as breakups or divorces), or harassment and bullying.^[2][11][12] Those who have previously attempted suicide are at a higher risk for future attempts.^[2] Effective suicide prevention efforts include limiting access to methods of suicide such as firearms, drugs, and poisons; treating mental disorders and substance abuse; careful media reporting about suicide; improving economic conditions;^[2][13] and dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT).^[14] Although crisis hotlines, like 988 in North America and 13 11 14 in Australia, are common resources, their effectiveness has not been well studied.^[15][16]

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death worldwide,^[3][6] accounting for approximately 1.5% of total deaths.^[8] In a given year, this is roughly 12 per 100,000 people.^[6] Though suicides resulted in 828,000 deaths globally in 2015, an increase from 712,000 deaths in 1990, the age-standardized death rate decreased by 23.3%.^[17][18] By gender, suicide rates are generally higher among men than women, ranging from 1.5 times higher in the developing world to 3.5 times higher in the developed world; in the Western world, non-fatal suicide attempts are more common among young people and women.^[19] Suicide is generally most common among those over the age of 70; however, in certain countries, those aged between 15 and 30 are at the highest risk.^[1] Europe had the highest rates of suicide by region in 2015.^[20] There are an estimated 10 to 20 million non-fatal attempted suicides every year.^[21] Non-fatal suicide attempts may lead to injury and long-term disabilities.^[19] The most commonly adopted method of suicide varies from country to country and is partly related to the availability of effective means.^[22] Assisted suicide, sometimes done when a person is in severe pain or facing an imminent death, is legal in many countries and increasing in numbers.^[23][24]

Views on suicide have been influenced by broad existential themes such as religion, honor, and the meaning of life.^[25][26] The Abrahamic religions traditionally consider suicide as an offense towards God due to belief in the sanctity of life.^[27] During the samurai era in Japan, a form of suicide known as seppuku (腹切り, harakiri) was respected as a means of making up for failure or as a form of protest.^[28] Suicide and attempted suicide, while previously illegal, are no longer so in most Western countries.^[29] It remains a criminal offense in some countries.^[30] In the 20th and 21st centuries, suicide has been used on rare occasions as a form of protest; it has also been committed while or after murdering others, a tactic that has been used both militarily and by terrorists.^[31] Suicide is often seen as a major catastrophe, causing significant grief to the deceased's relatives, friends and community members, and it is viewed negatively almost everywhere around the world.^[32][33]