Prevalence of Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors and Its Disclosure in the German General Population.

The paper presents reference values for the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R) and population-based lifetime and 12-month prevalences on suicide related thoughts and behaviors (STBs). A representative sample of the general German population was assessed (n=2.513). Mean SBQ-R score was 3.8. Lifetime prevalence of STBs was 15.5% (n=388), with higher rates found in women and in middle-aged adults. Lifetime STBs were disclosed by 5.7% (n=142) of respondents. 12-month prevalence was 5.1%, with women showing higher rates. The results enable other researchers to compare their data to representative reference values on a widely used measure for STBs. Future studies might address the problem of low disclosure of STBs as well as the impact of methodological aspects, such as wording, on prevalence rates.