News & Highlights

This section presents news and highlights from SPRC and the suicide prevention field. Use the filters on the left to find the following items:

  • Weekly Spark, SPRC’s online newsletter, containing brief news articles, research summaries, announcements, and funding opportunities. Subscribe to the Weekly Spark.
  • Director’s Corner, a monthly column by SPRC leadership and guest authors.
  • From the Field, innovative activities being implemented in states, communities, healthcare organizations, and other settings.

Displaying 38 results. Refine results using the filters on the left.

Weekly Spark

A Look Back at Research Summaries in 2016

December 29, 2016
Effects of Therapy on Suicide Attempts, Lancet Psychiatry, March 18 The Cost of Suicidal Behavior, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, April 8 Suicide...
Weekly Spark

Planned and Impulsive Suicide Attempts

December 16, 2016
A study in South Korea revealed differences in people who planned suicide attempts compared to those who attempted suicide impulsively....
Weekly Spark

White Mountain Apache Tribe Decreases Suicide Deaths and Attempts

December 09, 2016
A comprehensive suicide surveillance and prevention program has decreased the suicide rate among the White Mountain Apache Tribe during a...
Weekly Spark

Cyberbullying, Social Networking, and Suicidal Behavior in Adolescents

November 17, 2016
A study found that 11- to 20-year-old Canadian youth who used social networking sites (such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) were...
Weekly Spark

Youth Suicide and Firearm Child Access Laws

November 10, 2016
An analysis of 30 years of suicide data for all 50 states revealed that (1) state legislation requiring a minimum...
Weekly Spark

Insomnia and Suicide Attempts

October 27, 2016
Recent research indicates that middle-aged and older adults (aged 44 to 87) with depression who also report suicidal ideation and...
Weekly Spark

Suicide Attempt History and Risk Assessment

October 20, 2016
Forty percent of college students who reported a suicide attempt on a single-item survey were found not to have attempted...
Weekly Spark

Epilepsy and the Risk of Suicide Attempts

October 14, 2016
A study in the United Kingdom found that people with epilepsy are at increased risk for suicide attempts both before...
Weekly Spark

Military Sexual Trauma and Suicide Mortality

September 30, 2016
An analysis of Veterans Health Administration data found that both women and men who experienced military sexual trauma (that is,...
Weekly Spark

Firearm Availability and Suicide

September 23, 2016
The authors of a review of the research on firearm availability and firearm suicide concluded that “firearm restrictions, including permit...
Weekly Spark

Parental Death and Suicide

September 16, 2016
A large study in Denmark, Sweden, and Finland found that people who experienced the death of a parent before age...
Weekly Spark

Prescription Drug Misuse and Suicidal Ideation

September 09, 2016
An analysis of data from the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found a significant association between the...
Weekly Spark

The Impact of Physical Pain on Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors

August 19, 2016
A meta-analysis of 31 studies confirmed that “physical pain is a consistent risk factor for suicidal thoughts and behaviors” and...
Weekly Spark

Suicide Assessment in Psychiatric Emergency Departments

August 12, 2016
Research suggests that using standardized assessments may improve the ability of mental health clinicians in psychiatric emergency departments to detect...
Weekly Spark

Web-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

July 29, 2016
A brief web-based cognitive behavioral therapy (wCBT) program was shown to reduce suicidal ideation among medical interns at two university...
Weekly Spark

Substance Misuse and Suicide

July 22, 2016
An analysis of primary care and coroner service records in Northern Ireland shed light on the relationship between substance misuse...
Weekly Spark

Telephone Follow-up and Suicide Attempts

July 15, 2016
A previous study in Spain found that a series of telephone calls to people who had been discharged from an...
Weekly Spark

Patient and Clinician Age and Suicide Risk Assessment

June 24, 2016
Research revealed that younger mental health clinicians judged a hypothetical patient’s suicide risk and need for hospitalization to be higher...
Weekly Spark

Suicide Screening in the Emergency Department

June 17, 2016
A team from the Emergency Department Safety Assessment and Follow-up Evaluation (ED-SAFE) study found that (1) effective universal suicide screening...
Weekly Spark

Safety Planning

June 10, 2016
Research conducted among Veterans Health Administration (VHA) patients at high risk for suicide suggests that safety plans may be more...
Weekly Spark

Serious Mental Illness and the Decision to Share Suicidal Thoughts

June 03, 2016
Gatekeeper training for people in whom seriously mental ill people are likely to confide may help prevent suicide, according to...
Weekly Spark

Risk Factors for Suicide Attempts and Suicidal Ideation

May 27, 2016
A research team calculated that 90 percent of new onset suicide attempts and 71 percent of new onset suicidal ideation...
Weekly Spark

Community College Students: Veterans and Non-Veterans

May 20, 2016
Although this study found that community college students have rates of mental health disorders, suicidal ideation, and suicidal intent similar...
Weekly Spark

Suicide Risk among Emergency Department Patients

May 13, 2016
People treated in emergency departments for suicidal ideation or behavior were more likely to attempt or die by suicide during...
Weekly Spark

Suicide Attempters and Suicide Deaths

May 06, 2016
A recent analysis of pooled data from the National Surveys of Drug Use and Health and the U.S. Mortality Files...
Weekly Spark

Mental Disorders and Long - Term Suicide Risk

April 29, 2016
A Swedish study found that people without mental disorders had a very low long-term risk of suicide (0.3 percent) compared...
Weekly Spark

Sibling Bullying and Suicidal Behaviors

April 22, 2016
Bullying by a sibling doubles the risk of depression and both suicidal and non-suicidal self-harm among young people as they...
Weekly Spark

Fiscal Austerity and Suicide Rates

April 15, 2016
A study of data from five European countries found that government fiscal austerity measures (e.g. reductions in public sector salaries,...
Weekly Spark

The Cost of Suicidal Behavior

April 08, 2016
A recent analysis reported that the cost of suicides and suicide attempts in the United States in 2013 was $93.5...
Weekly Spark

Youth Activities as a Protective Factor

April 01, 2016
Research in Canada provides evidence that engaging adolescents in personally meaningful activities may protect them from suicide ideation and risk...
Weekly Spark

Knowledge and Attitudes about Suicide and Help-Seeking

March 25, 2016
Increasing knowledge about suicide and reducing negative attitudes about people who die by suicide may improve help-seeking, according to the...
Weekly Spark

Effects of Therapy on Suicide Attempts

March 18, 2016
Research described as “the largest follow-up study of psychosocial therapy interventions offered after deliberate self-harm” revealed significantly reduced rates of...
Weekly Spark Research

“Invisible Risk” among Adolescents

February 19, 2016
A study of more than 12,000 schoolchildren in 11 European countries found that high media use, sedentary behavior, and reduced...
Weekly Spark Research

Suicide among Older Chinese Adults in the United States

February 12, 2016
A study of Chinese people over the age of 60 in the greater Chicago area revealed that living alone, poor...
Weekly Spark

Youth Suicide Clusters and Newspaper Coverage

January 29, 2016
An analysis of newspaper reporting on youth and celebrity suicides (1988-1996) found that front-page placement; headlines containing the word “suicide”...
Weekly Spark

PHQ-9 and Suicide Prevention

January 22, 2016
The PHQ-9 Depression Questionnaire was found to predict both suicides and suicide attempts among a sample of people being treated...
Weekly Spark

Physical Illness, Psychiatric Disorders, and Suicide

January 15, 2016
A study in Denmark demonstrated that although both physical illnesses and psychiatric disorders individually increase suicide risk, people afflicted with...
Weekly Spark

Research Summaries 2015

January 08, 2016
Home Foreclosures and Suicide April 3, 2015Suicide Attempt Risk among Youth in Impoverished Communities June 19, 2015School Climate and Lesbian,...