A Systematic Literature Review of Technologies for Suicidal Behavior Prevention

• Published in: Journal of medical systems Vol. 42; no. 4; pp. 71 - 7
• Main Authors: Franco-Martín, Manuel A., Muñoz-Sánchez, Juan Luis, Sainz-de-Abajo, Beatriz, Castillo-Sánchez, Gema, Hamrioui, Sofiane, de la Torre-Díez, Isabel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.04.2018; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag (Germany)
• Subjects: Computer Science; Consultation; Education & Training; Health Informatics; Health Sciences; Human behavior; Learning algorithms; Literature reviews; Machine learning; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; New technology; Prevention; Risk; Scientific papers; Search engines; Social interactions; Social networks; Social organization; Statistics for Life Sciences; Suicidal behavior; Suicide; Suicides & suicide attempts; Systematic review; Technologists; Wireless networks; Young adults; Social networks; Suicide prevention; mhealth; Web; Smartphone
• ISSN: 0148-5598; 1573-689X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10916-018-0926-5

Suicide is the second cause of death in young people. The use of technologies as tools facilitates the detection of individuals at risk of suicide thus allowing early intervention and efficacy. Suicide can be prevented in many cases. Technology can help people at risk of suicide and their families. It could prevent situations of risk of suicide with the technological evolution that is increasing. This work is a systematic review of research papers published in the last ten years on technology for suicide prevention. In September 2017, the consultation was carried out in the scientific databases PubMed, ScienceDirect, PsycINFO, The Cochrane Library and Google Scholar. A general search was conducted with the terms “prevention” AND “suicide” AND "technology. More specific searches included technologies such as "Web”, “mobile”, “social networks”, and others terms related to technologies. The number of articles found following the methodology proposed was 90, but only 30 are focused on the objective of this work. Most of them were Web technologies (51.61%), mobile solutions (22.58%), social networks (12.90%), machine learning (3.23%) and other technologies (9.68%). According to the results obtained, although there are technological solutions that help the prevention of suicide, much remains to be done in this field. Collaboration among technologists, psychiatrists, patients, and family members is key to advancing the development of new technology-based solutions that can help save lives.