The Epidemiology of Suicide Behaviors among the Countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region of WHO: a Systematic Review

• Main Authors: Seyed Kazem Malakouti, Farnoush Davoudi, Saeed Khalid, Masoud Ahmadzad Asl, Murad Moosa Khan, Narges Alirezaei, Arash Mirabzadeh, Diego DeLeo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2015-05-01
• Series: Acta Medica Iranica
• Subjects: Suicidal behaviors; Prevalence; Systematic review; Eastern mediterranean region
• Online Access: https://acta.tums.ac.ir/index.php/acta/article/view/4895
• ISSN: 0044-6025; 1735-9694

This systematic review aimed to help better to understand the epidemiology of suicidal behaviors among Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) countries. The PubMed, EMR medex, Scopus, PsychInfo, ISI, and IMEMR were searched with no language limitation for papers on the epidemiology of suicidal behaviors in the general population, published up to August 2013. A total of 13 articles were reviewed. The incidence (per 100.000) of committed suicide ranged from 0.55 to 5.4. The lifelong prevalence of attempted suicide, suicidal plan and thoughts were 0.72-4.2%, 6.2-6.7%, and 2.9-14.1%, respectively. The figures for suicide are higher than those officially reported. Suicide behaviors' statistics is susceptible to underestimation presumably due to the socio-cultural, religious and legal barriers, not to mention the lack of well-organized registries and methodologically sound community-based surveys.