In a pivotal new study published in BMC Psychiatry, researchers have delivered a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis addressing the prevalence and determinants of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in young people across the MENAT region—an acronym for the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey. This region, characterized by its complex sociopolitical landscape, cultural stigmas surrounding mental health, and limited psychiatric care infrastructure, presents an urgent public health challenge. The investigation, encompassing 47 independent studies with a cumulative sample size surpassing 115,000 participants, unveils critical data on how suicidality manifests among youth aged 25 and below, offering invaluable insights for clinicians, policymakers, and mental health advocates.
The study rigorously synthesized data from across six comprehensive scientific databases, including PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and PsycINFO, focusing on literature published between January 2010 and June 2025. Employing robust meta-analytic techniques followed PRISMA guidelines and was preregistered under PROSPERO (ID: CRD420251101524), ensuring methodological transparency and adherence to international systematic review standards. This strategy permitted the researchers to quantify pooled prevalence rates of suicidal ideation and attempts, alongside statistical evaluation of associated risk factors via odds ratios and confidence intervals derived under random-effects modeling.
A stark revelation from the meta-analysis is the strikingly high prevalence of suicidal ideation, identified in approximately one-quarter (25%) of sampled youths. Even more concerning, the lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts reached 12%. Notably, certain individual studies reported alarmingly elevated rates—suicidal ideation peaked at 52.7% in Jordanian cohorts, while attempts were most frequently documented in samples from Kuwait. This heterogeneity highlights regional differences that may reflect variations in sociocultural stressors, conflict exposure, and accessibility to mental health resources.
Delving deeper into psychosocial variables, the meta-analytic findings underscore female gender as a significant correlate of suicidal ideation, suggesting potentially gender-specific vulnerabilities in the MENAT youth population. Psychosocial adversities such as bullying and profound loneliness were shown to elevate risk, with odds ratios of 1.6 and 2.2, respectively. These stressors appear to exert a profound psychological toll, potentially precipitating suicidal thoughts by undermining social connectedness and emotional well-being.
Substance use emerged as a potent risk amplifier for both suicidal ideation and attempts across the included studies. Cigarette smoking doubled the odds of suicidal ideation, while consumption of alcohol and amphetamines posed even higher risks—tripling and more than tripling odds, respectively. These substances likely exacerbate neural dysregulation involved in impulse control and mood disorders. Furthermore, the link between cannabis use and suicide attempts was also statistically significant, compounding concerns about adolescent substance experimentation.
Clinically relevant mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety were consistently associated with increased suicide risk. Depression imparted a 1.5-fold greater odds for suicidality, while anxiety’s association was even more pronounced, doubling odds in ideation and tripling in attempts. These findings reinforce the critical role that diagnosable psychiatric disorders play as antecedents to suicidal behaviors in vulnerable youth populations.
Trauma history, particularly experiences of sexual abuse, markedly amplified risk metrics across the spectrum of suicidality, with odds ratios of 2.0 for ideation and 2.2 for attempts. This underscores the enduring psychological scars inflicted by trauma and highlights an area necessitating trauma-informed approaches within prevention frameworks.
While the investigation successfully delineated a range of risk factors, it also revealed glaring gaps in research concerning protective factors that might mediate or buffer against suicidality. Constructs such as family connectedness, religiosity, and social support—often posited as resilience factors in global literature—were inconsistently measured and reported. This lacuna signals a pressing need for future research to incorporate culturally sensitive metrics evaluating protective influences, essential for designing holistic interventions.
Despite its valuable contributions, the study acknowledged a key limitation: the reliance of many included works on single-item measures of suicidality rather than validated multi-item scales. This methodological variation could attenuate precision and comparability of prevalence estimations, suggesting that future research endeavors would benefit substantially from standardized, multi-dimensional assessment tools to improve reliability.
The findings bear critical implications for public health policy and clinical practice within the MENAT region. Given the alarmingly high prevalence estimates and the multifaceted risk landscape, there is an urgent demand for culturally tailored, evidence-driven suicide prevention strategies. These strategies necessitate integration with existing mental health services, promotion of early identification and intervention for at-risk youth, and empowerment of community engagement to mitigate stigma.
Moreover, addressing substance use and psychosocial stressors such as bullying and social isolation is paramount in curbing youth suicidality. Mental health promotion campaigns tailored in culturally appropriate modalities, focusing on fostering social support networks and enhancing familial bonds, could serve as vital components of comprehensive prevention frameworks.
This rigorous synthesis not only advances understanding of youth suicide epidemiology in MENAT but also establishes a benchmark for implementing region-specific mental health research infrastructure and policy reform. As the MENAT countries confront burgeoning youth populations amid socio-economic and political upheavals, addressing these mental health challenges grows exponentially urgent.
In conclusion, this systematic review decisively affirms that suicidal ideation and attempts are prevalent and multifactorially determined phenomena among young people in the MENAT region. A confluence of psychosocial adversities, substance use, and mental health disorders underpins elevated suicide risk. Addressing these challenges demands concerted, culturally grounded, multi-sectoral efforts incorporating research, clinical, and community perspectives. Enhanced mental health services, evidence-based prevention strategies, and robust longitudinal research are imperative to mitigate this growing public health crisis and foster resilience in one of the world’s most vulnerable youth populations.
Subject of Research:
Prevalence, risk factors, and protective factors related to suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among youth aged 25 years and younger in the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey (MENAT) region.
Article Title:
Prevalence and risk factors of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among young people in the MENAT region: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Article References:
Alhassan, M.A., Alarabi, M.A., Albalawi, W.M. et al. Prevalence and risk factors of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among young people in the MENAT region: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-025-07585-7
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