Suicide

Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of willfully ending one's own life; it is sometimes a noun for one who has committed or attempted the act.

Treatment

Treatment is directed at the underlying causes of suicidal thinking. Clinical depression is the major treatable cause, with alcohol or drug abuse being the next major categories. Other psychiatric disorders associated with suicidal thinking include bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, Borderline personality disorder, Gender identity disorder and anorexia nervosa. Suicidal thoughts provoked by crises will generally settle with time and counseling. For a person with strong or at least definitive family or community ties, urgently providing information about who else would be hurt and the loss that they would feel can sometimes be effective. For a person suffering poor self-esteem, citing valuable and productive aspects of their life can be helpful. Sometimes provoking simple curiosity about the victim's own future can be helpful.

Related Topics:
Clinical depression - Alcohol - Drug abuse - Psychiatric disorder - Bipolar disorder - Schizophrenia - Borderline personality disorder - Gender identity disorder - Anorexia nervosa - Counseling

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During the acute phase, the safety of the person is one of the prime factors considered by doctors, and this can lead to admission to a psychiatric ward or even involuntary commitment.

Related Topics:
Psychiatric ward - Involuntary commitment

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Suicide prevention

Various suicide prevention strategies have been used:

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• Promoting mental resilience through optimism and connectedness. This can be through various means.
• Education about suicide, including risk factors, warning signs and the availability of help.
• Increasing the proficiency of health and welfare services at responding to people in need. This includes better training for health professionals and employing crisis counselling organizations.
• Reducing domestic violence and substance abuse are long-term strategies to reduce many mental health problems.
• Reducing access to convenient means of suicide (e.g., toxic substances, handguns).
• Reducing the quantity of dosages supplied in packages of non-prescription medicines e.g., aspirin.
• Interventions targeted at high-risk groups.
• Research.
• There are several major research journals devoted to suicide prevention and intervention research:
• Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention
• Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior; New York – Guilford Publications, Inc.