According to the World Health Organization, approximately one million people commit suicide each year, which is the second leading cause of death among people from 15 to 29 years of age [1]. There are also indications that for every adult who committed suicide, possibly more than 20 others attempted suicide [1]. Worldwide, suicides account for 50% of all violent deaths recorded among men and 71% among women [2]. In Spain, suicide causes twice as many deaths as traffic accidents and 70 times more deaths than gender violence [1].

It is important to highlight the fact that suicides are preventable; prevention efforts would require a comprehensive multi-sectorial prevention response in all countries. Based on the societal impacts that suicide has in many countries, it is very important that health services incorporate suicide prevention as a central component. In addition, alcohol consumption and mental disorders contribute to many suicides worldwide [2-4].

Early identification and effective management are key for people at risk for suicide, so they can receive the care they need [5]. Communities play a key role in suicide prevention: they can provide social support to the most vulnerable individuals, deal with their follow-up, fight against social stigmatization, and support those who have lost close relatives to suicide [6,7].

People feel anxiety and some situations can cause them to make decisions to end their life. Information and communications technologies (ICTs) can provide innovations to support the work of health professionals to address this issue. Mobile apps can also provide a valuable resource for communities and individuals by addressing social issues [3,4]. The aim of this article is to conduct a systematic review of existing mobile apps in Google and Apple online stores, and in the literature for suicide prevention. This research will help experts in the field and app developers gain insight into what mobile apps exist, and features that they can continue to research and develop.

Mobile health (mHealth) is a part of electronic health and refers to computers, smartphones, mobile health apps, and patient monitoring services and apps used for the purpose of positively increasing access to health information. For many health issues, especially those related to mental health prevention, remote patient monitoring is a good start and mobile apps on smartphones are an available means that can save costs and benefit hard-to-reach populations. However, it is important to verify the accuracy of the results of different apps that are available on the virtual stores, such as iOS [8] and Android [9]. The confidence generated by these apps can benefit end users, either by improving their health monitoring or simply to verify their body condition.

The goal of this paper is to present the state of the art of mobile apps designed to prevent suicide, in English and Spanish languages. This review of the scientific literature is presented to show scientific studies that demonstrate how such apps have been developed, and the results that have been obtained, when using mobile apps. This review allows us to promote the discussion of the results found, and to communicate the current state of these technologies to other members of the scientific community.

Suicide prevention is a health issue, and it is important that apps in this field are supported by professionals who make these tools as a way to care for their patients, and to prevent this situation that affects many countries.

Few commercial mobile apps aimed at suicide prevention exist, compared to other pathologies such as cardiology [16]. As far as existing literature is concerned, even fewer results have been found. Luxton et al [17] examined innovate apps related to suicide prevention. Some of these apps included gaming, text analysis, and virtual worlds, and the authors discussed the limitations and advantages of these technologies [17].

Marasinghe et al [18] conducted a randomized controlled trial examining whether a Brief Mobile Treatment intervention could improve outcomes related to typical care among people with suicidal behavior. Sixty-eight participants were recruited from a Sri Lankan hospital; people who received the intervention were found to accomplish important improvements in reducing suicidal ideation [18]. Larsen et al [19] showed an overview of different technological developments for suicide prevention. Some of these developments included automatic detection of suicide cases from social media and crisis detection from acoustic variability, among others [19]. The authors presented the mHealth app for Indigenous populations that was detailed in Shand et al [10]. Barriers to help-seeking included shame, feared loss of autonomy, and negative attitudes towards health care providers [10]. The use of mobile devices and apps continues to rise amongst young people, thus presenting opportunities to utilize these aids in overcoming help-seeking barriers.

Based on our experience in clinical and real cases, we conclude that mHealth apps are an essential tool that can help us to prevent suicide, considering the family, caregivers, and health professionals that are part of helping to save a life through the use of ICTs. Therefore, we consider it fundamental that clinical support provides validity to the apps offered on the Internet. The bibliographic review allowed us to examine the apps based on scientific studies from real cases that generated proven results.

As future work, we will develop and evaluate a suicide prevention app by looking at the shortcomings detected in the apps that were analyzed in this work. Saving even a single life via a mobile app is a breakthrough.