Children of parents who die by suicide are at an increased risk of suicide or self-harm when they reach the age their parent was at the time of their death, a study shows.
Individuals who have lost a parent to suicide are known to have a higher risk of developing self-harming behaviours or taking their own life, but this risk is shown to elevate when they reach the age their parent lived to.
The findings are published in Suicide and Life-Threatening Behaviors and highlight the importance of prevention interventions around times of increased risk of suicide for individuals who have lost a parent to suicide.
Previous research shows that individuals who lose a parent to suicide have an almost three-fold increased risk of suicide compared with offspring of living parents and over double the risk for offspring bereaved by other causes of parental death. The causes of this increased risk are poorly understood but are likely a combination of genetic, epigenetic and environmental contributions. The research team, led by Yanakan Logeswaran, a PhD student and visiting researcher in the Division of Psychiatry at UCL, hypothesised that the rates of suicide and self-harm are higher when offspring reach the age of their parent died by suicide.
Using statistical methods, the researchers analysed data from five Danish national registers showing individuals whose parents died between 1980 and 2016, which included information on self-harm and suicide attempts. From the data, they identified 17,806 individuals whose parents died by suicide and 452,674 individuals whose parents died due to other causes.
The researchers looked for incidents of suicide and self-harm in the offspring in a two-year window around their parent’s suicide. They also examined 15-year flanking periods on either side of their parent’s death for self-harm or suicidal behaviour. The findings were compared with the control group whose parents died from non-suicide related causes.
On average, individuals with a parent who died by suicide reached the age of their parent died 24 years later, and these people had about twice the risk of self-harm or suicide at this time, relative to the 15 years before or after. People whose parents died from other causes did not have an increased risk during this period of age correspondence.
The researchers state: ‘Our findings support the idea of a dynamic process of grief, in so much as the elevated risk of suicidal behaviour at [parental] age correspondence might also represent a period of loss orientation and increased distress.’
The findings highlight the need for appropriate interventions when offspring reach the age that their parent died by suicide. The researchers stated: ‘Our findings support the practice of asking suicide-bereaved individuals about age at parental suicide, identifying this as an anticipated period of increased risk and planning increased support.’
They added: ‘This is also an opportunity to reinforce that suicide is not inevitable after the suicide of a parent, with the absolute risk of suicide in offspring of suicide decedents estimated at less than 1 per cent.’
Article reference: Y Logeswaran et al. Risk of self-harm and suicide on reaching the age at which a parent died by suicide or other causes: A Danish, population-based self-controlled case series study (2024) https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.13135
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