AI chatbots have been blamed for motivating suicidal behavior in several cases, raising  concerns the popular tools could dispense harmful advice to those experiencing mental health emergencies. A new study finds that three widely used artificial intelligence chatbots generally do a good job responding to very-high-risk and very-low-risk questions about suicide, but they are inconsistent in answering questions about suicide that may pose intermediate risks.

Firearms were involved in 38.5 percent of suicides among older women from 2014-2023, up from 34.9 percent in 2014, according to a new study in JAMA Network Open. Even though older men had substantially higher firearm suicide rates than older women, the rates among older men remained relatively stable. Women represent nearly half of all new gun owners in the United States; as female gun ownership surges across many states, these findings highlight a need to better understand the immediate and long-term consequences of firearm suicides among older women, as well as develop tailored interventions to mitigate firearm suicides among all older adults. 

LGBTQIA+ college students living in conservative US states have reported far worse mental health than their counterparts in more liberal areas in a national study.

University of Warwick-led analysis of data from over 10,000 teenagers has found that sleep problems at age 14 are associated with self-harm behaviour at 14 and future self-harm at age 17.

A nationwide study with researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Yale School of Medicine and The Ohio State University, showed how a smartphone app reduced repeated suicide attempts by 58.3% among patients with a prior history of attempting suicide.