Suicide prevention and mood disorders: Self‐exclusion agreements for firearms as a suicide prevention strategy

Abstract

Suicide involves a complex set of behaviors and emotions that lead up to actions that may be based on planning and forethought or the result of impulse. While there are a host of antecedent circumstances the presence of a mood disorder, primarily depression, is the most common factor in suicide. While management of depression is recognized as important prevention strategy in depression, the means by which suicide occurs must be a critical element of prevention. Policies that lower access to the means for suicide will decrease the fatality. Guns are associated with half of suicides and the case fatality rate of gun associated suicide is over 90% compared to 7% for all other means. This emphasizes the importance of offering strategies that limit access to guns to those at higher risk for suicide. A declaration of formal self‐exclusion for access to firearms (guns and ammunition) offers the individual at greater risk for suicide to place themselves on an official list that would prevent them from purchasing lethal weapons. A person with depression, when well, might wish to enroll voluntarily to prevent themselves, when ill, from procuring a weapon to harm themselves or others. This recognizes the autonomy of the person and protects both the individual, the family, and society.

A Retrospective Study on the Factors Associated with Long-Stay Hospitalization in a Child Neuropsychiatry Unit

“…Affective disorders are the main discharge diagnosis, representing about 40% of the sample. In this sense, the association between mood disorders and suicidality is well reported in the literature [ 40 , 41 , 42 ].…”

Suicide prevention is everybody's business

“…Reducing access to methods of suicide is also important. In his review, McInnis et al (2021) examine the issue of access to firearms suggesting self‐exclusion agreements as a potential way forward. This is innovative, non‐stigmatizing and gives the power to an individual with a known mood disorder to protect themselves and society and is especially important for countries where issues of gun control can be divisive and political.…”