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Suicide and Self-Harm

Suicide risk detection, ideation-to-action theories, and crisis intervention research.

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The research landscape

PubMed records indexed
24,679
Published in last 5 years
11,149
Active NIH grants
1,435
NIH funding
$73M

Publication volume by year

  • 477521
  • 451222
  • 424323
  • 439624
  • 445525
  • 229826

Under-studied questions

Derived from the indexed PubMed literature and NIH funding record for this topic. Verify each cited paper before relying on a gap in an application.

  • Reliance on cross-sectional designs in suicide and self-harm research

    Well supported

    Across the 28 most recent NIH-indexed suicide and self-harm articles analyzed, 7 (25%) explicitly surface this issue in their own title or abstract. A recurring, self-reported constraint at this rate is a concrete opening rather than a general complaint.

    Evidence

    Detected in 7 of 28 abstracts (25%) by matching the language authors themselves use to describe study limitations. Counts come from cached PubMed records, not from an interpretation of them.

    Possible dissertation angle

    Design a longitudinal follow-up that measures the same constructs at multiple timepoints so temporal ordering can actually be established.

    Sources (6)

    Derived from 28 PubMed records and 1435 active NIH grants.

  • Dependence on self-report measures in suicide and self-harm research

    Tentative

    Across the 28 most recent NIH-indexed suicide and self-harm articles analyzed, 2 (7%) explicitly surface this issue in their own title or abstract. A recurring, self-reported constraint at this rate is a concrete opening rather than a general complaint.

    Evidence

    Detected in 2 of 28 abstracts (7%) by matching the language authors themselves use to describe study limitations. Counts come from cached PubMed records, not from an interpretation of them.

    Possible dissertation angle

    Pair the standard self-report battery with an objective or behavioral index and quantify how much the two diverge.

    Sources (2)

    Derived from 28 PubMed records and 1435 active NIH grants.

  • Declining publication activity in suicide and self-harm

    Moderately supported

    Annual PubMed output for Suicide and Self-Harm is trending down by roughly 9% per year. Declining areas are sometimes genuinely resolved, but more often attention has moved on while open questions remain — worth checking which of the two applies here.

    Evidence

    Least-squares trend across yearly PubMed counts: 2021: 4775, 2022: 4512, 2023: 4243, 2024: 4396, 2025: 4455, 2026: 2298.

    Possible dissertation angle

    Audit what was actually settled versus abandoned in this literature, and target a question that was dropped for practical rather than scientific reasons.

    Sources (4)

    Derived from 28 PubMed records and 1435 active NIH grants.

Florida faculty working on this

Recent literature

See all on PubMed