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Suicidality in the prospective Zurich study: prevalence, risk factors and gender

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Abstract

Our prospective Zurich study (1978–2008) found that suicidal ideation had occurred in 40.5 % and suicide attempts in 6.6 % of the population by age 50. Important gender differences were found in both suicidality and its risk factors. Suicide attempts were earlier and more frequent among women than among men: 70 versus 44 % reported their first suicide attempt before 20. For women, the relative risk of suicide attempts was 1.6, but the relative risk of suicidal ideation was about equal (1.1 for women). The main risk factors for suicidal ideation in women were low social support (OR 4.0) and frequent punishment in childhood (OR 3.7), and in men, a depressive (OR 6.5) and an anxious personality (OR 4.6). The main risk factors for suicide attempts in women were a broken home (OR 10.2) and sexual abuse/violence (OR 7.9) in childhood; in men, no multivariate analyses of suicide attempt were conducted because of insufficient statistical power.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Lenggstrasse 31, P.O. Box 1931, 8032, Zurich, Switzerland

    Jules Angst, Michael P. Hengartner, Vladeta Ajdacic-Gross & Wulf Rössler

  2. Addenbrookes Hospital, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, UK

    Jonathan Rogers

  3. Gonville and Caius College, Trinity Street, Cambridge, UK

    Jonathan Rogers

  4. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Ulrich Schnyder

  5. Research Unit of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark

    Hans-Christoph Steinhausen

  6. Clinical Psychology and Epidemiology, Institute of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Hans-Christoph Steinhausen

  7. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Hans-Christoph Steinhausen

  8. Collegium Helveticum, a Joint Research Institute Between the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Wulf Rössler

  9. Institute of Psychiatry, Laboratory of Neuroscience (LIM 27), University of Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Wulf Rössler

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  1. Jules Angst
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  2. Michael P. Hengartner
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  4. Ulrich Schnyder
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  5. Hans-Christoph Steinhausen
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  6. Vladeta Ajdacic-Gross
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  7. Wulf Rössler
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Correspondence to Jules Angst.

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Angst, J., Hengartner, M.P., Rogers, J. et al. Suicidality in the prospective Zurich study: prevalence, risk factors and gender. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 264, 557–565 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-014-0500-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-014-0500-1

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