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Etiology
Sustainable Development Goals and Global Mental Health
Review
Suicide prevention has been highlighted as a global public mental health issue by the recent World Health Organisation report on suicide (WHO, 2014) and the United Nations proposal to include suicide rates as a key indicator for target 3.4 of the Sustainable Development Goals. Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death globally (Hawton & van Heeringen, 2009) and it is estimated that as many as 804 000 suicide deaths occurred worldwide in 2012 (WHO, 2014). It is estimated that rates of non-fatal suicidal behaviour are 20 to 30 times more common than completed suicides (Wasserman, 2001). In Ireland for instance in 2013 rates of self-harm for men were 182 per 100 000 and for women 217 per 100 000, which is higher than the suicide rates of 17.4 and 3.9 per 100 000, respectively (Griffin et al. 2015). For every suicide attempt an estimated 10 people experience suicidal ideation (Borges et al. 2010). As many as 75.5% of suicides occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) (WHO, 2014). A large body of evidence documents the psychiatric risk factors for suicidal behaviours (Hawton et al. 2005a , b ; Krysinska & Lester, 2010). A growing body of literature documents the relationship between suicide and socio-economic variables, such as poverty, financial crisis, indebtedness and unemployment (Brinkmann, 2009; Fliege et al. 2009; Platt, 2011; Chan, 2013; Coope et al. 2014; Haw et al. 2015). The recently published systematic review of 37 studies utilising multivariate analysis of the relationship between poverty and suicidal ideation and behaviours in LMICs, is a further example of literature in this field (Iemmi et al., 2016). Understanding relationships between poverty and suicide is important for suicide prevention, especially in LMICs where rates of poverty and suicide are high and where the economic costs of suicidal behaviour are substantial. It is within this context that we conducted a systematic mapping of the literature published in English on poverty and suicidal behaviour in LMICs. Our intention was to consider critically what has hitherto been the focus of research on poverty and suicidal behaviour and identify possible future directions for research. We focused on methodological issues (such as measurement, study design, methods of statistical...