Five factors predict who reattempts suicide within a year of a first attempt, large Spanish cohort finds

A prospective multicentre cohort study followed 1,730 patients across eight Spanish hospitals after an index suicide attempt, finding 19.7% (340 patients) reattempted suicide within 12 months, with risk highest in the first months Primary Study (Pérez et al.1). Five factors independently predicted reattempt: a high psychotropic medication burden (adjusted hazard ratio 2.55), more frequent suicidal ideation (adjusted hazard ratio up to 2.07), prior attempts (up to 1.80), moderate-to-severe childhood emotional neglect (1.56), and non-suicidal self-injury (1.45).

The cohort was recruited from Spanish hospital sites; the study does not test whether these predictors hold, or whether post-attempt follow-up logistics operate the same way, in a population with a more rural or dispersed access profile than the trial’s recruitment sites.

For crisis and liaison psychiatry services, these five factors offer an evidence-based basis for risk stratification following a suicide attempt, while whether the same predictive pattern holds in populations with different geography and access to follow-up remains an open question this study does not answer.