Suicide Loss and Its Impacts on Mortality, and Mental, Physical, and Social Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review of Registry-Based Studies

LEARNING OBJECTIVES: After participating in this CME activity, the psychiatrist should be better able to:• Describe the mental, physical, and social health risks experienced by individuals bereaved by suicide across different kinship groups.• Identify key gaps in the current suicide bereavement research literature and explain their implications for clinical postvention strategies.• Differentiate suicide bereavement-related risks by kinship group (offspring, parents, spouses, siblings) and age at the time of loss.• Recognize populations with the highest suicide bereavement-related vulnerabilities. BACKGROUND: Suicide bereavement is a global public health problem associated with adverse physical and mental health outcomes. While population-based registry studies offer a promising avenue to understand the impacts of suicide bereavement, there has been no systematic review of results from such studies. This systematic review examines mental, physical, and social health outcomes among suicide-bereaved individuals in global population-based registry studies, with a focus on differences in findings by outcome, kinship, and comparison group. METHODS: We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines for studies registered in PubMed and PsycInfo. The review was conducted in April 2025. RESULTS: The initial search revealed 404 unique records. After screening and full-text review, 36 studies published between 2005-2024 were included. Most frequently, studies examined bereaved offspring (n = 20), followed by bereaved parents (n = 8), spouses (n = 5), siblings (n = 5), and unspecified familial relations (n = 5). Overall, suicide loss was frequently associated with adverse health outcomes, including mortality, particularly due to suicide, and mental health (e.g., major depression, self-harm), and some physical health concerns. Associations meaningfully differed by kinship and comparison group. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first systematic review on population-based registry research concerning relationships between suicide loss and adverse mental, physical, and social health outcomes. Future studies should examine patterns of disease comorbidity, expand types of kinship examined (e.g., roommates), and probe how risk varies by time since loss.