National suicide management guidelines recommending family-based prevention, intervention and postvention and their association with suicide mortality rates: systematic review. Issue 2 (24th March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Panesar, Balpreet; Soni, Divya; Khan, Mohammed I.; Bdair, Faris; Holek, Matthew; Tahir, Talha; Woo, Julia; Sanger, Nitika; Khumalo, Nonhlanhla P.; Minuzzi, Luciano; Thabane, Lehana; Samaan, Zainab
• Is Part Of: BJPsych open. Volume 8:Issue 2(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-03-24
• Subjects: Suicide -- national guidelines -- family -- systematic review -- recommendations; Psychiatry -- Periodicals; Mental health -- Periodicals; 616.89005
• DOI: 10.1192/bjo.2022.15
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2056-4724

Abstract

Abstract : Background: Suicidal behaviour remains a major public health concern and countries have responded by authoring guidelines to help mitigate death by suicide. Guidelines can include family-based recommendations, but evidence for the level and category of family-based involvement that is needed to effectively prevent suicide is unclear. Aims: To explore the association between family-based recommendations in guidelines and countries' crude suicide rates. PROSPERO registration: CRD42019130195. Method: MEDLINE, Embase, PsycInfo, Web of Science and WHO MiNDbank databases and grey literature were searched within the past 20 years (1 January 2000 to 22 June 2020) for national guidelines giving family-based recommendations in any of three categories (prevention, intervention and postvention). Results: We included 63 guidelines from 46 countries. All identified guidelines included at least one family-based recommendation. There were no statistically significant differences seen between mean World Health Organization crude suicide rates for countries that included only one, two or all three categories of family-based recommendations. However, a lower spread of crude suicide rates was seen when guideline recommendations included all three categories (mean crude suicide rates for one category: 11.09 (s.d. = 5.71); for two categories: 13.42 (s.d. = 7.76); for three categories: 10.68 (s.d. = 5.20); P = 0.478). Conclusions: Countries should work towards a comprehensive national suicide guideline that includes all categories of family-based recommendations. Countries with previously established guidelines should work towards the inclusion of evidence-based recommendations that have clear implementation plans to potentially help lower suicide rates.