Sammanfattning
Low socioeconomic status and social support are risk factors
for poor physical and mental health, suicide and self-harm. This
robust association can either be because poor social conditions
cause a decline in health or because psychiatric disorders
deteriorate individuals’ social conditions. Negative or lacking
social conditions can furthermore cause mental ill-health through
constant direct effects or through indirect buffer effects where
favorable social conditions reduce the influence of negative life
events. Thorough knowledge about social conditions is irrespectively
important for effective prevention of psychiatric disorders
and suicidal behavior, and the present article will hence elucidate
the importance of social conditions for mental health and suicidal
behavior by focusing on some major theoretical approaches. We
will also use examples from our own empirical studies in order to
illustrate how social conditions can influence the occurrence of
suicide in Nordic populations.