ArticleBMC psychiatry2021
An exploration of the genetic epidemiology of non-suicidal self-harm and suicide attempt.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Self-injury and suicide among people living with HIV/AIDS in China: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Non-suicidal self-injury and other key predictors of suicide deaths among children and adolescents in England: a population-based case-control study.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: Phenotypic Correlates of the Autism Polygenic Score.JAACAP open · 2025Article
- Multitrait GWAS of non-suicidal self-injury and the polygenetic effects on child psychopathology and brain structures.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Article
- Peripheral biological correlates of suicidality in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis.iScience · 2025Article
- Molecular Pathways, Neural Circuits and Emerging Therapies for Self-Injurious Behaviour.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- The impact of childhood emotional abuse on non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents with mood disorders: a moderated mediation model.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- The STAR collaborative nonsuicidal self-injury study: methods and sample description of the face-to-face sample.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2024Article
- Associations between polygenic liability to psychopathology and non-suicidal versus suicidal self-injury.American journal of medical genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric genetics : the official publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics · 2024Article
- Risk factors, theoretical models, and biological mechanisms of nonsuicidal self-injury: a brief review.Interdisciplinary nursing research · 2023Review
- Do Cortisol and Dehydroepiandrosterone Influence Motivational Factors for Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in Female Adolescents?Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- A cross-sectional study of non-suicidal self-injury in a Chinese adolescent inpatient cohort.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Investigating the phenotypic and genetic associations between personality traits and suicidal behavior across major mental health diagnoses.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2022Article
- Polygenic Contributions to Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors in a Sample Ascertained for Alcohol Use Disorders.Complex psychiatryArticle
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEmpirical evidence supporting the distinction between suicide attempt (SA) and non-suicidal self-harm (NSSH) is lacking. Although NSSH is a risk factor for SA, we do not currently know whether these behaviours lie on a continuum of severity, or whether they are discrete outcomes with different aetiologies. We conducted this exploratory genetic epidemiology study to investigate this issue further.
methodsWe explored the extent of genetic overlap between NSSH and SA in a large, richly-phenotyped cohort (the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children; N = 4959), utilising individual-level genetic and phenotypic data to conduct analyses of genome-wide complex traits and polygenic risk scores (PRS).
resultsThe single nucleotide polymorphism heritability of NSSH was estimated to be 13% (SE 0.07) and that of SA to be 0% (SE 0.07). Of the traits investigated, NSSH was most strongly correlated with higher IQ (rG = 0.31, SE = 0.22), there was little evidence of high genetic correlation between NSSH and SA (rG = - 0.1, SE = 0.54), likely due to the low heritability estimate for SA. The PRS for depression differentiated between those with NSSH and SA in multinomial regression. The optimal PRS prediction model for SA (Nagelkerke R
conclusionsOur findings suggest that SA does not have a large genetic component, and that although NSSH and SA are not discrete outcomes there appears to be little genetic overlap between the two. The relatively small sample size and resulting low heritability estimate for SA was a limitation of the study. Combined with low heritability estimates, this implies that family or population structures in SA GWASs may contribute to signals detected.
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