Category Archives: News

Professor Rory O’Connor named as the Recipient of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s 2023 Research Award.

ADHD UK is delighted to announce a new research partnership with the University of Glasgow to explore the relationship between ADHD and suicide risk. Although people with ADHD are known to have increased risk of suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and death by suicide, there are many gaps in our understanding of why and how they are at increased suicide risk. Over the next 18 months, we aim to explore the association between a range of psychological and psychosocial factors and suicide risk in people with ADHD.

New blog by SBRL’s Cara Richardson summarising findings from her recent systematic review examining suicide risk factors in men. Suicides in men outnumber women in almost every country in the world (Naghavi, 2019), with the exception of the 15-19 year age group. In Scotland males accounted for almost 75% of all suicide deaths in 2019 (ScotPHO, 2020). Each life lost to suicide is a preventable tragedy and more needs to be done to understand the risk factors in individuals who take their own life.

I had the pleasure of taking part in Roman Kemp’s documentary Our Silent Emergency on mental health and suicide which he made following the death of his best friend and radio producer Joe Lyons.  It will be broadcast tonight on BBC1 at 9pm as well as streaming on BBC iPlayer now.

Suicide is baffling and devastating in equal measures, and it can affect any one of us: one person dies by suicide every 40 seconds. Yet despite the scale of the devastation, for family members and friends, suicide is still poorly understood.

It is incredibly humbling and rewarding to work with such a dedicated group of people, both here at the University and well beyond. Everyone has a shared goal of trying to do whatever we can to help and protect the most vulnerable during this global COVID-19 pandemic, as we all navigate an uncertain future ahead together.

Rory O’Connor was interviewed on BBC Scotland’s The Nine news and current affairs programme in the aftermath of Caroline Flack’s death. Here’s part of the interview here where he discusses the complexity of suicide and the importance of safety planning in suicide prevention.

A unique mental health programme set up to help those in distress, which was developed through work led by Rory O’Connor and Jack Melson, has won a prestigious Scottish Health Award. The national Distress Brief Intervention programme which is a partnership between a range of statutory and 3rd sector organisations including the University of Glasgow received the Care for Mental Health award at the Scottish Health Awards event held in Edinburgh on the 14th of November.