AIMS

Overall aim

To investigate the association of suicide and suicide attempt in parents with suicidal behaviour, mental health, social and academic functioning in offspring.

Specific objectives

1. To investigate whether:

a) Exposure to parental self harm (fatal or non-fatal) confers an independent risk for self harm, suicidal thoughts, suicidal plans, suicidal attempts, psychiatric symptoms, diminished social and academic functioning beyond that observed in offspring exposed to parental mental or physically disabling illness and offspring of parents who have no history of self harm or mental and/or physically disabling illness.

b) Exposure to parental death by suicide confers an independent risk for self harm, suicidal thoughts, suicidal plans, suicidal attempts, psychiatric symptoms, diminished social and academic functioning beyond that of exposure to parental death by a cause other than suicide.

2. To examine whether outcomes in offspring i.e. self harm, suicidal thoughts, suicidal plans, suicidal attempts, psychiatric symptoms, social and academic indices differ depending on the gender of the self harming parent and/or gender of offspring.

3. To examine whether age of exposure to self harm of a parent modifies the relationship between exposure to self harm and self harm, suicidal thoughts, suicidal plans, suicidal attempts, psychiatric symptoms, social and academic functioning in offspring.

4. To assess whether all these exposure factors (gender of proband and offspring, age of exposure, type of self harm) are related to the age of first onset of self harm, suicidal thoughts, suicidal plans, suicidal attempts, behaviour or mental health problem in the offspring.

5. To examine whether exposure to different forms of self-harm in parents (i.e. suicide versus attempted suicide) is associated with specific self-harming behaviours (i.e. suicidal thoughts, suicidal plans, suicidal attempts, self harm with no intention to die), psychiatric symptoms, social and academic parameters in offspring.