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Parasuicide (Greek para-, "near" or "resembling", + suicide) refers to potentially lethal suicidal gestures, risky behaviour likely to result in death, and unsuccessful suicide attempts.

Examples of suicidal gestures include cutting where the cut is not deep enough to cause significant blood loss, or taking a non-lethal overdose of medication. This differs from self-harm in that, in self-harm, the person's primary intention is to relieve unbearable emotions, sensations of unreality, or feelings of numbness by injuring their body. Suicidal gestures are typically done to alert others of the seriousness of the individual's clinical depression and suicidal ideation, and are usually treated as actual suicide attempts by hospital staff. Some suicidal gestures do end up becoming actual suicides, despite the individual not having the intention of dying.

Some suicidal gestures are parasuicides, some are not. A suicidal gesture's classification as a parasuicide depends on its lethality. Clearly non-lethal suicidal gestures such as leaving a note indicating the desire to die are not considered parasuicides. However, all such gestures involving life-threatening means are parasuicides.

Unsuccessful suicide attempts may result from miscalculations in the suicide plan (such as not taking enough pills to reach a lethal dose), intervention from others (e.g. hospitalization), or the suicidal person changing his or her mind during the process of a suicide attempt. These people are at high risk of attempting suicide again.

Note: A suicidal act that does not result in death is commonly called a suicide attempt or a suicidal gesture, with the distinction being that the goal of a suicide attempt is death, whereas a suicidal gesture does not have death as a goal, but can serve as a dramatic way of alerting others to some type of ongoing distress suffered by the individual—also known as a "cry for help".

Risky behaviors such as speeding or disregarding traffic laws, or abusing drugs, are considered parasuicide when the person shows total disregard for whether his actions result in his or her death.

Nearly half of all suicides are preceded by an attempt at suicide that does not end in death. Those with a history of such attempts are 23 times likelier to eventually end their own lives than those without.^[1]

Those who attempt to harm themselves are, as a group, quite different from those who actually die from suicide; females attempt suicide much more frequently than males do, but males are four times more likely to die from suicide.^[2] Therefore, females commit more parasuicides, at least as far as suicidal gestures and attempts are concerned. Regardless of the intention of the parasuicide, it is treated very seriously by the medical community, due to the risk of future suicide attempts by these individuals.