Reading D

Risk factors are characteristics that make it more likely that individuals will consider, at-tempt, or die by suicide. Protective factors are characteristics that make it less likely that indi-viduals will consider, attempt, or die by suicide. Risk and protective factors are found at various levels: individual (e.g., genetic predispositions, mental disorders, personality traits), family (e.g., cohesion, dysfunction), and community (e.g., availability of mental health services). They may be fixed (those things that cannot be changed, such as a family history of suicide) or modifi-able (those things that can be changed, such as depression).

Researchers identify risk and protective factors by comparing groups of individuals who have died by (or attempted or contemplated) suicide with a group of similar individuals who have not died by (or attempted or contemplated) sui-cide. If a specific characteristic is found more often in those who died by suicide than in the comparison group, then a risk factor for suicide may have been discovered. Likewise, if a specific characteristic is found more often in members of the comparison group, but not in the suicide group, then a protective factor may have been discovered.

Risk factors are often confused with warning signs of suicide, and frequently suicide prevention materials mix the two into lists of “what to watch out for.” But the two are very different.

Warning signs indicate an immediate risk of suicide, whereas risk factors indicate some-one is at heightened risk for suicide, but indicate little or nothing about immediate risk (Rudd et al., 2006). Warning signs are only applicable to individuals, whereas risk and protective factors are found in individuals and communities. Being able to tell the difference between a risk factor and a warning sign is important in communications about suicide risk. Talking about warning signs helps people know what actions they can take right now to help someone at immediate risk for suicide. Talking about risk factors helps people understand what might need to change within an individual or a community in order to decrease suicide risk over time.

Risk and protective factors for heart disease and warning signs of a heart attack provide a familiar example. Risk factors for heart disease – such as tobacco use, obesity, and high cholesterol – do not indicate that someone is having a heart at-tack, merely that he or she is at heightened risk for suffering a heart attack at some point in time. On the other hand, warning signs of a heart at-tack – chest pain, shortness of breath, and nausea – indicate that someone may be having a heart attack right now. Similarly, risk factors for suicide – prior attempts, mood disorders, and substance abuse – indicate that someone is at heightened risk for suicide. But warning signs – threatening suicide, seeking means for suicide, and dramatic mood changes – indicate that someone may be at immediate risk for suicide (see Table 1).

Table 1. Examples of Risk and Protective Factors and Warning Signs for Heart Attack and Suicide

Researchers have identified dozens if not hundreds of risk and protective factors. Below are listed some of the most common major risk and protective factors for suicide.

Major risk factors for suicide include the following:

• Prior suicide attempt(s)
• Substance abuse
• Mood disorders
• Access to lethal means

One review found that those who had attempted suicide were at 38-times greater risk for dying by suicide than those who had not attempted suicide and those who had abused alcohol were at a 6-times greater risk for dying by suicide than those who had not abused alcohol (Harris & Barraclough, 1997). Other reviews found that those with mood disorders and those with access to lethal means had substantially greater risk for suicide than those who did not have mood disorders and who did not have access to lethal means (Bostwick & Pankratz, 2000; Brent, 2001).

Major protective factors include the following:

• Effective mental health care
• Connectedness to individuals, family, community, and social institutions
• Problem-solving skills
• Contacts with caregivers

Mental health care, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy, can reduce suicide risk (Brown et al., 2005; Linehan et al., 2006). Connectedness between individuals, family members, community organizations, and social institutions forms the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s focus on suicide prevention (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.). Problem-solving skills decrease suicide risk (McAuliffe et al., 2006) and contacts, even those as simple as letters or postcards from health care providers to patients, have demonstrated reductions in suicide risk (Fleischmann et al., 2008; Motto & Bostrom, 2001).

When considering risk and protective factors, keep these points in mind:

• Not all risk and protective factors are created equal. Some risk factors have been shown to significantly increase risk, whereas other risk factors do not have as strong or well-demonstrated relationships to risk. Long lists mask the fact that some risk factors are much more powerful than others.
• High risk for suicide, whether for individuals or communities, is usually found in a com-bination or “constellation” of multiple risk factors.
• The significance of particular risk and protective factors varies among individuals and communities, so the degree of risk or protection conveyed by any one factor will differ among individuals and communities.
• Although risk factors generally contribute to long-term risk, immediate stressors – so-called tipping points – may create the final impetus for the suicidal act. Tipping points may include relationship problems or break-ups, financial hardships, legal difficulties, public humiliation or shame, worsening medical prognosis, and other stressful events.

Risk and protective factors provide areas of emphasis for interventions that help prevent suicide. Simply stated, decreasing risk factors and/or increasing protective factors should decrease suicide risk.

For example, depression is a significant risk fac-tor for suicide; therefore, lessening the number of individuals with depression should result in decreasing suicide. A study from the island of Gotland, Sweden, found that when primary care physicians were trained to identify and treat depression in their patients, the suicide rate of islanders went down (Rihmer, Rutz, & Pihlgren, 1995). Similarly, the restriction of lethal means – creating barriers to jumping from bridges as well as reducing access to poisons, drugs, and firearms – has demonstrated reductions in suicide risk (Daigle, 2005; Mann, Apter, Bertolote, & Beautrais, 2005).

Risk factors can also be used to identify and target prevention efforts for members of groups that are at higher risk for suicide, for example, those who have attempted suicide in the past (Harris & Barraclough, 1997), those with mood disorders (Arsenault-Lapierre, Kim, & Turecki, 2004; Cavanagh, Carson, Sharpe, & Lawrie, 2003), gay and lesbian individuals who have been rejected by their families (Ryan, Russell, Huebner, Diaz, & Sanchez, 2010), individuals in substance abuse treatment (Britton & Conner, 2010), and older males (Conwell, Van Orden, & Caine, 2011). By identifying groups at higher risk, prevention practitioners can create and target interventions to the needs of members of those groups.

• Risk and protective factors play a critical role in the prevention of suicide for both individuals and communities.
• Risk factors are not warning signs.
• Major risk factors include prior suicide at-tempt(s), mood disorders, substance abuse, and access to lethal means.
• Major protective factors include effective mental health care, connectedness, problem-solving skills, and contacts with caregivers.
• Risk and protective factors provide targets for intervention in both individuals and com-munities: Decreasing risk factors generally de-creases risk, and increasing protective factors generally decreases risk.
• Risk and protective factors vary between individuals and across settings.

Suicide prevention efforts should begin with a strategic planning process that, among other goals, identifies and targets specific risk and protective factors for intervention.