Social and clinical characteristics of mental health patients who died by suicide

On this page:

• Social characteristics of mental health patients who died by suicide
  • Socio-demographic characteristics
  • Residency
  • Financial problems
  • Internet use
  • Bereavement
• Clinical characteristics of mental health patients who died by suicide
  • Self-harm

Social characteristics of mental health patients who died by suicide

Socio-demographic characteristics

• The majority were male patients (12,170, 65%) and unmarried (11,795, 73%) and nearly half (7,752, 47%) lived alone (see additional data and downloads).
• 1,652 (9%) were aged under 25 (including 266 (2%) aged under 18 and 1,386 (8%) aged 18-24); 2,470 (14%) patients were aged 65 and above. 1,194 (7%) were from an ethnic minority group.
• In 2016-2022, 367 (5%) of all patients were known to identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual and 84 (1%) were within a trans (including transgender, transsexual, non-binary) group.

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Residency

800 (5%) patients were migrants to the UK (either seeking permission to stay in the UK or resident in the UK for less than 5 years).

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Financial problems

There were 2,101 (17%) patients who had recently experienced serious financial problems.

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Internet use

Suicide-related internet use (e.g. visiting pro-suicide websites) was reported in 813 (8%) of all patients.

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Bereavement

There were 138 (1%) patients who had died on or near the date of a family member or friend’s death anniversary.

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Clinical characteristics of mental health patients who died by suicide

• Rates of previous self-harm, alcohol and/or drug misuse were high (see additional data and downloads).
• Over half of patients who died by suicide had a comorbid (i.e. additional) mental health diagnosis
• The proportion of patients with a comorbid mental illness increased by 16% over the report period.

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Self-harm

The majority (10,353, 62%) of all patients had a lifetime history of self-harm; the proportion fell by 12% from 67% in 2012-2015 to 59% in 2019-2022. However, the proportion who had self-harmed in the 3 months before suicide (4,877, 31%) increased by 10% from 29% to 32% between 2012-2015 and 2019-2022, driven by a higher number of patients who self-harmed in 2020 (497, 37%). This increase in 2020 was seen in both male and female patients. In 3,325 (24%) instances, the patient had been seen by the emergency department for self-harm.

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