Relationship Between Adoption and Suicide Attempts: A Meta-analysis

Context: 

Several investigations have shown that people in an adoption situation have a higher frequency of mental problems or disorders than the general population. However, no known meta-analysis consolidates information about the association between the adoption situation and suicide attempt.

 We aimed to systematically evaluate the primary observational studies that quantified the association between the being adopted and suicide attempt.

 A systematic review was designed that used a logical strategy based on specific descriptors in Spanish, English, and Portuguese, in combination with the Boolean operators (AND, OR). The search was performed on the following databases: PubMed, Scopus, Health Virtual Library, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, PsycArticles, BioMed Central, and Sage Journal. Articles were included until December 2018. The quality of the studies was evaluated with a tool based on the STROBE criteria.

 Six studies met the inclusion criteria. Three studies used case-control designs and the remaining three were cohort studies. Case-control studies computed 69 suicide attempts in 1,216 adopted people compared to 436 attempts amidst 20,555 non-adopted people (OR = 2.30, 95% CI 1.24 - 4.28, I2 = 61%). Cohort studies computed 536 suicide attempts among 36,965 people in adoption compared to 15,112 attempts in 3,118,069 non-adopted people (RR = 2.99, 95% CI 2.54 - 3.53, I2 = 73%).

 The adoption situation can increase suicide attempts; it predicts at least two times more cases of suicide attempts among adopted people than in the general population.