Suicidal thoughts in the context of Child grooming

Gender differences in suicide include different rates of suicides and suicidal behavior between males and females, among both adults and adolescents. While females more often have suicidal thoughts, males die by suicide more frequently. This discrepancy is known as the gender paradox in suicide.

Globally, death by suicide occurred about 1.8 times more often among males than among females in 2008, and 1.7 times in 2015. In the Western world, males die by suicide three to four times more often than do females. This greater male frequency is increased in those over the age of 65. Suicide attempts are between two and four times more frequent among females. Researchers have partly attributed the difference between suicide and attempted suicide among the sexes to males using more lethal means to end their lives. Other reasons, including disparities in the strength or genuineness of suicidal thoughts, have also been given.

Verbal abuse (also known as verbal aggression, verbal attack, verbal violence, verbal assault, psychic aggression, or psychic violence) is a type of psychological/mental abuse that involves the use of oral or written language directed to a victim. Verbal abuse can include the act of harassing, labeling, insulting, scolding, rebuking, or excessive yelling towards an individual. It can also include the use of derogatory terms, the delivery of statements intended to frighten, humiliate, denigrate, or belittle a person. These kinds of attacks may result in mental and/or emotional distress for the victim.

Verbal aggression and abuse affects all populations, cultures, and individuals. These actions are psychologically damaging and are considered forms of emotional and physical harm to the victim. This type of behavior leaves individuals feeling poorly about themselves and can lead to them developing numerous negative health issues and disorders such as suicidal thoughts, depression, poor physical health, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, personality disorders, and aggression.

Akathisia (/æ.kə.ˈθɪ.si.ə/ a-kə-THI-see-ə) is a movement disorder characterized by a subjective feeling of inner restlessness accompanied by mental distress and/or an inability to sit still. Usually, the legs are most prominently affected. Those affected may fidget, rock back and forth, or pace, while some may just have an uneasy feeling in their bodies. The most severe cases may result in poor adherence to medications, exacerbation of psychiatric symptoms, and, because of this, aggression, violence, and/or suicidal thoughts. Akathisia is also associated with threatening behaviour and physical aggression in mentally disordered patients. However, the attempts to find potential links between akathisia and emerging suicidal or homicidal behaviour were not systematic and were mostly based on a limited number of case reports and small case series. Apart from these few low-quality studies, there is another more recent and better quality study (a systematic review from 2021) that concludes akathisia cannot be reliably linked to the presence of suicidal behavior in patients treated with antipsychotic medication.

Antipsychotic medication, particularly the first generation antipsychotics, are a leading cause. Other agents commonly responsible for this side-effect may also include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, metoclopramide, and reserpine, though any medication listing agitation as a side effect may trigger it. It may also occur upon stopping antipsychotics. The underlying mechanism is believed to involve dopamine. When antidepressants are the cause, there is no agreement on the distinction between activation syndrome and akathisia. Akathisia is often included as a component of activation syndrome. However, the two phenomena are not the same since the former, namely antipsychotic-induced akathisia, suggests a known neuroreceptor mechanism (e.g., dopamine-receptor blockade). Diagnosis is based on the symptoms. It differs from restless leg syndrome in that akathisia is not associated with sleeping. However, despite a lack of historical association between restless leg syndrome and akathisia, this does not guarantee that the two conditions do not share symptoms in individual cases.