ArticleSuicide & life-threatening behavior2021
A network perspective on suicidal behavior: Understanding suicidality as a complex system.
Article in Suicide & life-threatening behavior, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Dynamic Simulation Models of Suicide and Suicide-Related Behaviors: Systematic Review.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Pooled it
- Role of machine learning algorithms in suicide risk prediction: a systematic review-meta analysis of clinical studies.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2024Pooled it
- The Effects of Internet-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Suicidal Ideation or Behaviors on Depression, Anxiety, and Hopelessness in Individuals With Suicidal Ideation: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Individual Participant Data.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Pooled it
- Changing temporal patterns in patient-reported wish to live and wish to die signal the imminent emergence and aftermath of suicide attempts: a dynamical systems analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Changes in Mental Health Networks Among High-Risk Suicide Groups in Korea Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of Korean medical science · 2026Article
- Symptom co-fluctuations with suicidal ideation over time: a dynamic time warp analysis.BMJ mental health · 2026Article
- Mood dynamics in adolescents and young adults with and without a history of suicidal thoughts and actions: a network approach.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Suicide attempt risk factors in individuals with psychiatric disorders and multi-affected families: a network analysis.Npj mental health research · 2026Article
- System dynamics of preadolescent mental wellbeing: A multi-actor perspective in Amsterdam using systems archetypes.Journal of public health research · 2026Article
- Age-Related Patterns of Female Suicide in Türkiye: A 15-Year Nationwide Analysis of Reported Reasons and Methods.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Suicidality and associated factors among people living with mental illness attending an outpatient clinic at a tertiary hospital in Uganda.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- From hopeless thoughts to suicidal attempt: a topographic analysis of adolescents' suicidal process using structural equation modeling.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Exploring the ambivalence model of suicidality among Iranian patients: a qualitative study with suicide attempters.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Complexity and risk factor research in mental disorders: better think twice.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- The Relationships Between Affect, Psychache, and Suicidal Ideation: A Network Analysis in 3879 Young Adults.Psychology research and behavior management · 2026Article
- Persistently ambiguous: a taxometric investigation on two groups of suicidal ideation indicators.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Do the Relative Importance and Pattern of Correlates of Suicidal Ideation Vary by Age and Gender? Network Analyses.International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie · 2025Article
- The geographic identification of elevated suicide risk model: evaluating a method for examining suicide-related behaviors at the neighborhood level in Harris County, Texas.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Symptomatic networks in suicide attempt and reattempt: Relevance of psychiatric comorbidity.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025Article
- A systematic review on passive sensing for the prediction of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.Npj mental health research · 2024Article
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7 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundSuicidal behavior is the result of complex interactions between many different factors that change over time. A network perspective may improve our understanding of these complex dynamics. Within the network perspective, psychopathology is considered to be a consequence of symptoms that directly interact with one another in a network structure. To view suicidal behavior as the result of such a complex system is a good starting point to facilitate moving away from traditional linear thinking.
objectiveTo review the existing paradigms and theories and their application to suicidal behavior.
methodsIn the first part of this paper, we introduce the relevant concepts within network analysis such as network density and centrality. Where possible, we refer to studies that have applied these concepts within the field of suicide prevention. In the second part, we move one step further, by understanding the network perspective as an initial step toward complex system theory. The latter is a branch of science that models interacting variables in order to understand the dynamics of complex systems, such as tipping points and hysteresis.
resultsFew studies have applied network analysis to study suicidal behavior. The studies that do highlight the complexity of suicidality. Complexity science offers potential useful concepts such as alternative stable states and resilience to study psychopathology and suicidal behavior, as demonstrated within the field of depression. To date, one innovative study has applied concepts from complexity science to better understand suicidal behavior. Complexity science and its application to human behavior are in its infancy, and it requires more collaboration between complexity scientists and behavioral scientists.
conclusionsClinicians and scientists are increasingly conceptualizing suicidal behavior as the result of the complex interaction between many different biological, social, and psychological risk and protective factors. Novel statistical techniques such as network analysis can help the field to better understand this complexity. The application of concepts from complexity science to the field of psychopathology and suicide research offers exciting and promising possibilities for our understanding and prevention of suicide.
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