Evidence pertaining to high-risk groups and interventions aimed at reducing suicide-related behavior was identified through a literature search. The Medline database was searched in September 2012 using the keywords 'suicid* AND (systematic OR meta-analysis)'. No date restrictions were placed on the search. In order to ensure that as many relevant articles as possible were found, reference lists of key articles identified by the search were examined, and publications by key authors in the area of suicide prevention were reviewed. Due to the scope of the project, only articles that systematically reviewed either groups at elevated risk of suicide or interventions designed to reduce suicide risk were included. Articles that reported on individual studies were not included.
Articles describing interventions in Australian Indigenous populations were identified separately, because there were likely to be much fewer trials specifically targeting these populations subjected to systematic review. For this information, Medline was searched more broadly, using the terms 'suicid* AND (Indigenous OR Aboriginal)' with additional hand searching. These search results were screened to identify studies that were conducted in Australia and reported on the effects of specific interventions.
Where possible, the findings are presented in an Australian context, supported by the most recent national mortality data reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.