suicide

An international team with Spanish participation has analysed which day of the week has the highest risk of suicide mortality, and it is Monday. The research, published in The BMJ, includes more than 1,700,000 suicide cases registered in 26 countries - including Spain - from 1971 to 2019. The data also show a sharp increase in the risk of suicide on New Year's Day in most of the countries analysed. Taking these results into account, the authors propose that they should be used to define plans and awareness-raising campaigns.

Ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, a new series of six articles published in The Lancet Public Health calls for a shift in the narrative. Experts advocate for moving beyond framing suicide solely as a mental health issue, emphasizing the need to recognize the impact of social factors such as poverty, debt, addiction, homelessness, abuse, discrimination, and social isolation.

The use of GLP-1 analog diabetes drugs-such as semaglutide, sold under the trade name Ozempic-is not linked to an increased risk of suicide, according to two studies published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The first, led by a U.S. team, analyzes data from more than 3,300 people who have participated in clinical trials. The second analyzes data from 124,517 users of these drugs in Sweden and Denmark, and compares them with an even larger group of people who used another type of diabetes medication.

In research using a WHO database of adverse drug reactions, the authors identified a signal of disproportionality of suicidal ideation with semaglutide, one of the drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity. The study, published in JAMA Network Open, did not find this signal for liraglutide, another drug indicated for these treatments.

The rate of death by suicide in Spain has increased between 2018 and 2021, according to a report presented today by the Complutense University of Madrid, the Centre for Biomedical Research in Mental Health Network (CIBERSAM) and the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, which points to the influence of the pandemic in this increase. In 2021, a total of 4,003 people died from this cause, 5.5% more than in 2018. During the pandemic, mortality by suicide was greater among people living in large cities and provincial capitals. The report, which includes data from 2000 to 2021, also shows the increase in deaths by suicide that occurred during the period of the economic crisis, from 2008 to 2014.