Biopsychosocial Model Analysis of Risk Factors for Suicide in Mexico: Systematic Review (2019–2024)
Suicidal behavior in Mexico constitutes an urgent public health problem, that requires integrating biological, psychological, and social dimensions. The objective of this systematic review was to identify and organize risk factors associated with death by suicide in Mexican population between 2019 and 2024, using the biopsychosocial model as a theoretical framework. The protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD420251131626) and followed the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. A structured search was conducted in PubMed, inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied; three independent authors performed a quality analysis; 110 full-text articles were evaluated, and 57 were included for the final analysis.
The findings were organized into 75 categories grouped by biopsychosocial domains. Psychological factors were the most frequent, highlighting depression, anxiety, emotional dysregulation, hopelessness, impulsivity, and self-harming behaviors. At the biological level, studies identified associations with sex, age, chronic diseases, substance use, and emerging findings in genetics, neuroendocrinology, and physiological markers. In the social dimension, interpersonal violence, adverse experiences in childhood, low social and family support, socioeconomic inequalities, and stigma predominated. Persistent methodological limitations were also observed in the studies reviewed, including the predominance of cross-sectional designs, convenience samples, heterogeneous instruments, and limited representation of structurally vulnerable populations.
The results show that Mexican research remains fragmented, focusing mainly on individual factors and providing little integrative analysis across biological, psychological, and social dimensions. So, it is required to evolve towards robust explanatory models incorporating longitudinal methodologies, a gender perspective, intersectional approaches, and multivariate frameworks that allow the understanding of individual vulnerability and structural conditions.