Contributor: Aaron Lessen, MD

Educational Pearls:

• Firearms are a dangerous potential method of committing suicide
• Death occurs in about 5-15% of suicide attempts overall, but death in suicide attempts using firearms occurs in 85-90% of cases
• In some states, families can petition a judge to remove firearms from a house although healthcare providers cannot do this

References

Sarai SK, Abaid B, Lippmann S. Guns and Suicide: Are They Related? Prim Care Companion CNS Disord. 2017 Dec 21;19(6):17br02116. doi: 10.4088/PCC.17br02116. PMID: 29272571.

Anestis MD, Bandel SL, Butterworth SE, Bond AE, Daruwala SE, Bryan CJ. Suicide risk and firearm ownership and storage behavior in a large military sample. Psychiatry Res. 2020 Sep;291:113277. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113277. Epub 2020 Jul 2. PMID: 32886959.

Mann JJ, Michel CA. Prevention of Firearm Suicide in the United States: What Works and What Is Possible. Am J Psychiatry. 2016 Oct 1;173(10):969-979. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.16010069. Epub 2016 Jul 22. PMID: 27444796.

Summarized by John Spartz, MS4 | Edited by Erik Verzemnieks, MD

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