Background Mental disorders have a strong association with suicide. Th
is metaanalysis, or statistical overview, of the literature gives an e
stimate of the suicide risk of the common mental disorders. Method We
searched the medical literature to find reports on the mortality of me
ntal disorders. English language reports were located on MEDUNE (1966-
1993) with the search terms 'mental disorders','brain injury', 'eating
disorders', 'epilepsy','suicide attempt','psychosurgery', with 'morta
lity' and 'follow-up studies', and from the reference lists of these r
eports. We abstracted 249 reports with two years or more follow-up and
less than 10% loss of subjects, and compared observed numbers of suic
ides with those expected. A standardised mortality ratio (SMR) was cal
culated for each disorder. Results Of 44 disorders considered, 36 have
a significantly raised SMR for suicide, live have a raised SMR which
fails to reach significance, one SMR is not raised and for two entries
the SMR could not be calculated. Conclusions If these results can be
generalised then virtually all mental disorders have an increased risk
of suicide excepting mental retardation and dementia. The suicide ris
k is highest for functional and lowest for organic disorders with subs
tance misuse disorders lying between. However, within these broad grou
pings the suicide risk varies widely.