The Minister for Health has announced that an additional $5 million will be provided to strengthen mental health treatments and services to prevent attempted suicide in
The population.You have collected some data on mental disorders and attempted
Suicide in this population (presented in the table below), and you are asked by the
Minister to recommend which disorder should be targeted to ensure the biggest
Impact on the burden of attempted suicide in the population.Which mental disorder
Do you recommend?
A)Substance use disorder
B)Affective disorder
C)Anxiety disorder
D)Psychosis

Question

The Minister for Health has announced that an additional $5 million will be provided to strengthen mental health treatments and services to prevent attempted suicide in
The population.You have collected some data on mental disorders and attempted
Suicide in this population (presented in the table below), and you are asked by the
Minister to recommend which disorder should be targeted to ensure the biggest
Impact on the burden of attempted suicide in the population.Which mental disorder
Do you recommend? 
A)Substance use disorder 
B)Affective disorder 
C)Anxiety disorder 
D)Psychosis

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Substance use disorder is the most likely candidate, as it has the largest
population attributable fraction (24.2%).This suggests that almost a quarter of
attempted suicide cases could be prevented if Substance use disorder were to
disappear from the population.Substance use disorder does not have the strongest
association with attempted suicide - psychosis has a RR three times greater - but it is
much more common than psychosis (10% vs.1%), and this drives the high proportion of
cases associated with it.
Of course, in practice it is unlikely that a single disorder would be targeted for a single
outcome, and it might be that each of these disorders (and other determinants of
attempted suicide) would also be targeted in a strategy combining a number of
approaches.

The Minister for Health Has Announced That an Additional $5