Abstract

We examined sexual orientation and sex differences in seven methods of suicide among adult suicides reported in the United States National Violent Death Reporting System (2012–2015; N = 59,075). Overall, most sexual minorities (i.e., lesbians, gay men, bisexuals) identified in the dataset used hanging (38%) followed by firearm (30%) and drug or poison ingestion (20%). Sexual minorities were more likely than heterosexuals to be younger, female, and Black/African American. Multivariate sex-stratified analyses in the overall sample showed that strong sexual orientation differences in lethal methods existed among men but not among women. However, when we compared sex differences in lethal methods among sexual minorities only, we found that lesbian/bisexual women, as compared to gay/bisexual men, were more likely to use a firearm or drug or poison ingestion than hanging. Findings suggest that the higher rate of suicide mortality among sexual minorities is likely driven by hanging, a method of suicide that is not particularly amenable to lethal method restricted-access prevention approaches. Future research directions, clinical training recommendations, and intervention opportunities are discussed.

摘要

我们检查了美国国家暴力死亡报告系统（2012-2015 年；N ）报告的成人自杀中七种自杀方式的性取向和性别差异 = 59,075）。总体而言，数据集中确定的大多数性少数群体（即女同性恋者、男同性恋者、双性恋者）使用绞刑（38%），其次是枪支（30%）和吸毒或吸毒（20%）。性少数群体比异性恋者更有可能是年轻的、女性的和黑人/非裔美国人。对总体样本进行的多变量性别分层分析表明，男性在致死方法方面存在强烈的性取向差异，但女性不存在。然而，当我们只比较性少数群体在致死方法上的性别差异时，我们发现，与男同性恋/双性恋男性相比，女同性恋/双性恋女性更有可能使用枪支、吸毒或服毒，而不是绞刑。调查结果表明，性少数群体的自杀死亡率较高可能是由于上吊，一种不是特别适用于致命方法限制访问预防方法的自杀方法。讨论了未来的研究方向、临床培训建议和干预机会。