Tehran University of Medical Sciences Acta Medica Iranica 0044-6025 53 5 2015 05 15 257 265 EN Seyed Kazem Malakouti Department of Psychiatry, Mental Health Research Centre, School of Behavioral Sciences and Mental health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Farnoush Davoudi Mental Health Research Centre, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Saeed Khalid World Health Organization, Regional office for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Unit, Regional Advisor, Washington, DC, United States of America. Masoud Ahmadzad Asl Mental Health Research Centre, School of Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Murad Moosa Khan Department of Psychiatry, Aga Khan University, Pakistan. Narges Alirezaei Mental Health Research Centre, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Arash Mirabzadeh Department of Psychiatry, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Diego DeLeo Department of Psychiatry, Australian institute for Suicide Research and Prevention,National Centre of Excellence in Suicide prevention, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. 2015 10 11 This systematic review aimed to help better to understand the epidemiology of suicidal behaviors among Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) countries. The PubMed, EMR medex, Scopus, PsychInfo, ISI, and IMEMR were searched with no language limitation for papers on the epidemiology of suicidal behaviors in the general population, published up to August 2013. A total of 13 articles were reviewed. The incidence (per 100.000) of committed suicide ranged from 0.55 to 5.4. The lifelong prevalence of attempted suicide, suicidal plan and thoughts were 0.72-4.2%, 6.2-6.7%, and 2.9-14.1%, respectively. The figures for suicide are higher than those officially reported. Suicide behaviors' statistics is susceptible to underestimation presumably due to the socio-cultural, religious and legal barriers, not to mention the lack of well-organized registries and methodologically sound community-based surveys. https://acta.tums.ac.ir/index.php/acta/article/view/4895 https://acta.tums.ac.ir/index.php/acta/article/download/4895/4451