Pathways to Suicide


Book Description




The Neurobiological Basis of Suicide


Book Description

With recent studies using genetic, epigenetic, and other molecular and neurochemical approaches, a new era has begun in understanding pathophysiology of suicide. Emerging evidence suggests that neurobiological factors are not only critical in providing potential risk factors but also provide a promising approach to develop more effective treatment and prevention strategies. The Neurobiological Basis of Suicide discusses the most recent findings in suicide neurobiology. Psychological, psychosocial, and cultural factors are important in determining the risk factors for suicide; however, they offer weak prediction and can be of little clinical use. Interestingly, cognitive characteristics are different among depressed suicidal and depressed nonsuicidal subjects, and could be involved in the development of suicidal behavior. The characterization of the neurobiological basis of suicide is in delineating the risk factors associated with suicide. The Neurobiological Basis of Suicide focuses on how and why these neurobiological factors are crucial in the pathogenic mechanisms of suicidal behavior and how these findings can be transformed into potential therapeutic applications.




Reducing Suicide


Book Description

Every year, about 30,000 people die by suicide in the U.S., and some 650,000 receive emergency treatment after a suicide attempt. Often, those most at risk are the least able to access professional help. Reducing Suicide provides a blueprint for addressing this tragic and costly problem: how we can build an appropriate infrastructure, conduct needed research, and improve our ability to recognize suicide risk and effectively intervene. Rich in data, the book also strikes an intensely personal chord, featuring compelling quotes about people's experience with suicide. The book explores the factors that raise a person's risk of suicide: psychological and biological factors including substance abuse, the link between childhood trauma and later suicide, and the impact of family life, economic status, religion, and other social and cultural conditions. The authors review the effectiveness of existing interventions, including mental health practitioners' ability to assess suicide risk among patients. They present lessons learned from the Air Force suicide prevention program and other prevention initiatives. And they identify barriers to effective research and treatment. This new volume will be of special interest to policy makers, administrators, researchers, practitioners, and journalists working in the field of mental health.




Risk Factors for Suicide


Book Description

Thoughts of suicide can be abundant and frequent for some. These thoughts easily disrupt the lives of not only the suicidal person but the world around said person. It may, however, be possible to tell someone is suicidal before it's too late. Participants of committee on the Pathophysiology and Prevention of Adult and Adolescent Suicide of the Institute of Medicine's held two workshops, Risk Factors for Suicide, March 14, 2001 and Suicide Prevention and Intervention, May 14, 2001, to discuss the topic of suicide. The two workshops were designed to allow invited presenters to share with the committee and other workshop participants their particular expertise in suicide, and to discuss and examine the existing knowledge base. Risk Factors for Suicide: Summary of a Workshop summarizes the first workshop whose participants were selected to represent the areas of epidemiology and measurement, socio-cultural factors, biologic factors, developmental factors and trauma, and psychologic factors. They were asked to present current and relevant knowledge in each of their expertise areas.




Alternatives to Suicide


Book Description

Alternatives to Suicide: Beyond Risk and Toward a Life Worth Living demonstrates how fostering resilience and a desire for life can broaden and advance an understanding of suicide. The book summarizes the existing literature and outlines a new focus on the dynamic interplay of risk and resilience that leads to a life-focus approach to suicide prevention. It calls for a treatment approach that enhances the opportunity to collaboratively engage clients in discussion about their lives. Providing a new perspective on how to approach suicide prevention, the book also lays out key theories on resilience and the interplay of risk and protective factors. Finally, the book outlines how emerging technologies and advances in data-analytic sophistication using real-time monitoring of suicide dynamics are ushering the field of suicide research and prevention into a new and exciting era.




Handbook of Youth Suicide Prevention


Book Description

This handbook examines research on youth suicide, analyzes recent data on suicide among adolescents, and addresses the subject matter as a serious public health concern. The book explores the research on youth suicide, examining its causes, new and innovative ways of determining suicide risk, and evidence-based intervention and prevention strategies. In addition, it focuses on specific under-studied populations, including adolescents belonging to ethnic, racial, and sexual minority groups, youth involved in the criminal justice system, and adolescents in foster care. The book discusses how culturally informed and targeted interventions can help to decrease suicide risk for these populations. Key areas of coverage include: Early childhood adversity, stress, and developmental pathways of suicide risk. The neurobiology of youth suicide. Suicide, self-harm, and the media. Assessment of youth suicidal behavior with explicit and implicit measures. Suicide-related risk among immigrant, ethnic, and racial minority youth. LGBTQ youth and suicide prevention. Psychosocial treatments for ethnoculturally diverse youth with suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Technology-enhanced interventions and youth suicide prevention. The Handbook of Youth Suicide Prevention is an essential resource for researchers, professors, graduate students as well as clinicians, therapists, and other professionals in developmental psychology, social work, public health, pediatrics, family studies, child and adolescent psychiatry, school and educational psychology, and all interrelated disciplines. Chapters 8, 9 and 16 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.




The International Handbook of Suicide and Attempted Suicide


Book Description

Recent research in the area of suicidology has provided significant new insights in the epidemiological,psychopathological,and biological characteristics of suicidal behaviour. The International Handbook of Suicide and Attempted Suicide is the first book to bring together this expertise and translate it into practical guidelines for those responsible for policy issues and for those involved in the treatment and prevention of suicidal behaviour. Leading international authorities provide a truly comprehensive and research-based reference to understanding, treating, and preventing suicidal behaviour. They explore concepts and theories which best guide work within this field and detail key research which has supported conceptual developments, preventive interventions and clinical treatment. "No self-respecting worker in deliberate self-harm and suicide prevention, either clinical or research, can afford to be without access to this comprehensive handbook - possession and regular use, may well become a marker of serious involvement in the subject! ...This is the most comprehensive, up-to-date, informative and well-written source of information on sucide and suicidal behaviour...an invaluable work of reference which will be essential for clinicians and researchers for many years to come." —Andrew Sims, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, St James's University Hospital, Leeds, UK - British Journal of Psychiatry




Suicidal Behaviour


Book Description

Suicidal Behaviour: Underlying dynamics is a wide ranging collection of articles that builds upon an earlier volume by the same editor (Suicidal Behaviour: Assessment of people-at-risk, 2010) and delves deeper into the dynamics of suicide by synthesizing significant psychological and interdisciplinary perspectives. The volume brings together varied conceptualizations by scholars across disciplines from around the globe, thereby adding on to the available theoretical understandings as well as providing research based inputs for practitioners in the field of suicidal behaviour. This book contains sixteen chapters divided into two broad sections. The volume opens with a discussion about the Theoretical Underpinnings of suicidal behaviour spread through the initial eight chapters that conceptualize the phenomenon from different vantage points of genetics, personality theory, cognitive and affective processes, stress and assessment theories. The second section brings in the Varied Research Evidences and Assessment Perspectives from different populations and groups. Building upon the theoretical foundations the chapters in this section discuss the nuances of dealing with suicidal behaviours among sexual minority populations, alcoholics, military personnel, and within in specific socio-cultural groups. The section closes with an intense focus on a significant issue encountered often in clinical practice, that of assessment of suicide risk, and ways of resolving the cultural, ethical and legal dilemmas.




The Interpersonal Theory of Suicide


Book Description

This book offers a theoretical framework for diagnosis and risk assessment of a patient's entry into the world of suicidality, and for the creation of preventive and public-health campaigns aimed at the disorder. The book also provides clinical guidelines for crisis intervention and therapeutic alliances in psychotherapy and suicide prevention.




Oxford Textbook of Suicidology and Suicide Prevention


Book Description

Part of the authoritative Oxford Textbooks in Psychiatry series, the new edition of the Oxford Textbook of Suicidology and Suicide Prevention remains a key text in the field of suicidology, fully updated with new chapters devoted to major psychiatric disorders and their relation to suicide.