Introduction Looking to the future : how can research prevent suicide ? (original) (raw)
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25 years of suicide research and prevention: How much has changed?
Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2020
Twenty five years ago the 1995 World Health Report noted that suicide was the second leading cause of death for young people in most countries (second only to accidents), with rates rising more quickly than those of any other age group (World Health Organization, 1995). It was on this backdrop that the first issue of Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry (CCPP) was released. It included an appropriately timed paper aiming to increase treatment adherence and follow-up among adolescents presenting to the emergency room for a suicide attempt (Rotheram-Borus, Piacentini, Miller et al., 1996). To this end, the authors developed an intervention program for multidisciplinary staff in the emergency room with later publications showing promising results (Rotheram-Borus, Piacentini, Van Rossem et al., 1996; Rotheram-Borus et al., 2000). Other brief interventions offered in emergency rooms have since been developed, such as the Family Intervention for Suicide Prevention (Asarnow et al., 2009), Therapeutic Assessment (Ougrin et al., 2011), and the Safety Planning Intervention (Stanley et al., 2018). Today, 25 years after the first issue of CCPP, suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people between the ages of 15 and 19 (World Health Organization, 2019), with rates decreasing throughout the world among all age groups (Naghavi & Global Burden of Disease Self-Harm Collaborators, 2019). Public health initiatives to reduce access to common means for suicide, such as toxic pesticides, have played a significant role in decreasing suicide rates in many areas of the world (Mew et al., 2017). However, suicide remains the second leading cause of death among 10to 19-year-olds in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018) where the number of visits to the emergency department for suicidal thoughts and attempts among children and adolescents doubled between 2007 and 2015 (Burnstein et al., 2019). Furthermore, global research on risk factors predicting suicidal behaviors has led to examining the same risk factors for 50 years without improving our ability to predict and prevent suicide (Franklin et al., 2017). This might seem to suggest that the answer to the question, "How much has changed?" regarding the past 25 years of suicide research and prevention would be a defeated response of "not much." Beyond the research-supported use of public health interventions restricting access to lethal means to reduce risk for suicide, I believe there are several positive changes in more recent years that offer reason for optimism. First, converging evidence suggests that the development of suicide ideation and the progression from suicide ideation to attempt occur across distinct pathways. That is, they are separate processes with separate explanations and predictors (Klonsky et al., 2018).
Contemporary principles of suicide prevention
Medicinski pregled, 2016
Introduction. Suicide remains a significant public health problem worldwide. This study is aimed at analyzing and presenting contemporary methods in suicide prevention in the world as well as at identifying specific risk groups and risk factors in order to explain their importance in suicide prevention. Material and Methods. The literature search covered electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus. In order to select the relevant articles, the authors searched for the combination of key-words which included the following medical subject heading terms (suicide or suicide ideation or attempted) and (prevention or risk factors) and (man or elders or mental disorders). Data analysis covered meta-analyses, systematic reviews and original scientific papers with different characteristics of suicide preventions, risk factors and risk groups. Results. Worldwide evidence-based interventions for suicide prevention are divided in universal, selective and indicated interventions. Rest...
A Concise Guide to Understanding Suicide
2014
Suicide rates continue to increase globally. The volume of research in this field has also expanded rapidly. In A Concise Guide to Understanding Suicide, leading researchers and clinicians provide a concise review of recent literature, report solutions achieved and give practical guidance for patient care to aid understanding and help prevent suicide. Each chapter is highly focused to provide pertinent information covering all major aspects of the field, from epidemiology and theories of causation through to treatment and prevention. This text will educate practising clinicians (psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, counsellors, and emergency room personnel) and other health care workers and researchers, as well as providing a pathway for undergraduate and graduate students interested in furthering their understanding of the complexities surrounding suicide. Further, mental health professionals and those in the social sciences will be extremely interested in this monograph, as will ...
Can We Really Prevent Suicide?
Current Psychiatry Reports, 2012
Every year, suicide is among the top 20 leading causes of death globally for all ages. Unfortunately, suicide is difficult to prevent, in large part because the prevalence of risk factors is high among the general population. In this review, clinical and psychological risk factors are examined and methods for suicide prevention are discussed. Prevention strategies found to be effective in suicide prevention include means restriction, responsible media coverage, and general public education, as well identification methods such as screening, gatekeeper training, and primary care physician education. Although the treatment for preventing suicide is difficult, follow-up that includes pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, or both may be useful. However, prevention methods cannot be restricted to the individual. Community, social, and policy interventions will also be essential.
A Population Health Perspective on Suicide Research and Prevention
Crisis, 2015
The recently published WHO suicide report indicates that the global incidence of suicide is declining (World Health Organization [WHO], 2014. This is welcome news for all working in this field and for the vast number of people affected by the suicide of a family member, friend, or colleague. However, much remains to be done. The report shows that there are more than 20-fold differences in the rate of suicide between high-and low-incidence countries and threefold differences across low-and middle-income countries (LAMIC) in the different WHO regions (WHO, 2014). If all countries had the same incidence of suicide as LAMICs in the Americas, there would be over 300,000 fewer suicides worldwide every year. Nevertheless, the potential for suicide reductions is far greater in some countries (e.g., those where particular high-lethality methods such as pesticides or firearms are commonly used or with high levels of alcohol misuse) than in others. This editorial summarizes, from a population (public health) and UK perspective, some thoughts about the contribution of suicidology to suicide prevention and, arising from this focus, some suggested priorities for research and policy over the next decade.
Journal of the National Medical Association, 2011
Suicide is the act of a human being intentionally causing his or her own death. More than 1 million people commit suicide every year. It is the 13th leading cause of death worldwide, with China, India, and Japan accounting for almost half of all suicides. In less than 50 years, the rate of suicide among Sri Lankans has risen from a modest level to one of the highest in the world (118 per 100,000). Suicide is a major preventable cause of premature death. It is influenced by psychosocial, cultural, and environmental risk factors. The impact of suicide can be devastating for all concerned. It is common in people who are living with chronic mental illness. Individuals with severe clinical depression and alcohol use disorders are at highest risk if untreated. On an interpersonal level, friends and families of suicide victims require social support. On a national level, governments need to recognize the causes of suicide and protect those most vulnerable. If governments commit to defining...
Understanding the Complex phenomenon of sUiCide: from researCh to CliniCal praCtiCe
Suicide is undoubtedly a worldwide major challenge for the public health. It is estimated that more than 150,000 persons in Europe die as a result of suicide every year and in several European countries suicide represents the principal cause of death among young people aged 14–25 years. It is true that suicide is a complex (and yet not fully understood) phenomenon and may be determined by the interaction between various factors, such as neurobiology, personal and familiar history, stressful events, sociocultural environment, etc. The suicide is always a plague for the population at risk and one of the most disgraceful events for a human being. Moreover, it implies a lot of pain often shared by the relatives and persons who are close to suicide subjects. Furthermore, it has been widely demonstrated that the loss of a subject due to suicide may be one of the most distressing events that may occur in mental health professionals resulting in several negative consequences, such as burnout, development of psychiatric symptoms and lower quality of life and work productivity. All considered, it is clear that the suicide prevention is a worldwide priority and every effort should be made in order to improve the early recognition of imminent suicide, manage suicidal subjects, and strengthen suicide prevention strategies. In our opinion, the first step of prevention is the improvement of knowledge in the field: this was the aim of this present special issue on Frontiers in Psychiatry. In this special issue, several papers have contributed to the suicide knowledge from several viewpoints and we hope that this will contribute to improve and disseminate knowledge on this topic.