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The Gender Matters

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Understanding Suicide

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Abstract

While there is converging evidence suggesting gender differences in the rates of suicidal behaviors, substantially less is known about the mechanisms underlying these differences. What follows is a review of the evidence supporting gender differences in suicidal behaviors, including epidemiology, age trends, methods, risk and protective factors, treatment, and the effects of sexual orientation and culture.

Although some of the gender differences in suicidal behaviors may be partially explained by environmental and behavioral factors, there is very little data on the role of sex differences in neurobiological risk factors. Surprisingly, the role of sexual hormones and sex differences in brain development on the risk for suicidal behaviors remains largely unexplored.

Alfredo Gutierrez and Alison Welch are contributed equally to this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10029, USA

    M. Mercedes Perez-Rodriguez MD, PhD, Alfredo Gutierrez MD & Alison Welch MD

  2. The Mental Health Patient Care Center and the Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center, James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Bronx, NY, 10468, USA

    M. Mercedes Perez-Rodriguez MD, PhD

  3. CIBERSAM, Fundacion Jimenez Diaz Hospital, Madrid, Spain

    M. Mercedes Perez-Rodriguez MD, PhD

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  1. M. Mercedes Perez-Rodriguez MD, PhD
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  2. Alfredo Gutierrez MD
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  3. Alison Welch MD
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Correspondence to M. Mercedes Perez-Rodriguez MD, PhD .

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  1. Academic Hospital of Montpellier, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Philippe Courtet

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Perez-Rodriguez, M.M., Gutierrez, A., Welch, A. (2016). The Gender Matters. In: Courtet, P. (eds) Understanding Suicide. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26282-6_31

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