Risk Factors

The Surgeon General’s Call to Action on Suicide identifies the following risk factors:

• Previous suicide attempts. History is the greatest indicator of future behavior
• Mental illness–particularly mood disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder
• Co-occurring mental and alcohol and substance abuse disorders
• Family history of suicide
• Hopelessness
• Impulsive and/or aggressive tendencies
• Barriers to accessing mental health treatment
• Relational, social, work or financial loss
• Physical illness (particularly chronic illness)
• Easy access to lethal methods, especially guns
• Unwillingness to seek help because of stigma attached to mental and substance abuse disorders and/or suicidal thoughts
• Influence of significant people–family members, celebrities, peers who have died by suicide (both through direct personal contact or inappropriate media coverage of a suicide.
• Cultural and religious beliefs–for instance, the belief that suicide is a noble
• Resolution of a personal dilemma
• Local epidemics of suicide that have a contagion influence
• Isolation