Explaining Suicide

Explaining Suicide
Author: Cheryl L. Meyer
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2017-01-05
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0128095792

The rate of suicides is at its highest level in nearly 30 years. Suicide notes have long been thought to be valuable resources for understanding suicide motivation, but up to now the small sample sizes available have made an in-depth analysis difficult. Explaining Suicide: Patterns, Motivations, and What Notes Reveal represents a large-scale analysis of suicide motivation across multiple ages during the same time period. This was made possible via a unique dataset of all suicide notes collected by the coroner's office in southwestern Ohio 2000–2009. Based on an analysis of this dataset, the book identifies top motivations for suicide, how these differ between note writers and non-note writers, and what this can tell us about better suicide prevention. The book reveals the extent to which suicide is motivated by interpersonal violence, substance abuse, physical pain, grief, feelings of failure, and mental illness. Additionally, it discusses other risk factors, what differentiates suicide attempters from suicide completers, and lastly what might serve as protective factors toward resilience. - Analyzes 1200+ suicide cases from one coroner's office - Identifies the top motivations for suicide that are based on suicide notes - Discusses the extent to which suicides are impulsive vs. planned - Leads to a better understanding on how to prevent suicide - Emphasizes resilience factors over risk factors

Why People Die by Suicide

Why People Die by Suicide
Author: Thomas Joiner
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2009-07-01
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0674970616

In the wake of a suicide, the most troubling questions are invariably the most difficult to answer: How could we have known? What could we have done? And always, unremittingly: Why? Written by a clinical psychologist whose own life has been touched by suicide, this book offers the clearest account ever given of why some people choose to die. Drawing on extensive clinical and epidemiological evidence, as well as personal experience, Thomas Joiner brings a comprehensive understanding to seemingly incomprehensible behavior. Among the many people who have considered, attempted, or died by suicide, he finds three factors that mark those most at risk of death: the feeling of being a burden on loved ones; the sense of isolation; and, chillingly, the learned ability to hurt oneself. Joiner tests his theory against diverse facts taken from clinical anecdotes, history, literature, popular culture, anthropology, epidemiology, genetics, and neurobiology--facts about suicide rates among men and women; white and African-American men; anorexics, athletes, prostitutes, and physicians; members of cults, sports fans, and citizens of nations in crisis. The result is the most coherent and persuasive explanation ever given of why and how people overcome life's strongest instinct, self-preservation. Joiner's is a work that makes sense of the bewildering array of statistics and stories surrounding suicidal behavior; at the same time, it offers insight, guidance, and essential information to clinicians, scientists, and health practitioners, and to anyone whose life has been affected by suicide.

The Neurobiological Basis of Suicide

The Neurobiological Basis of Suicide
Author: Yogesh Dwivedi
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 485
Release: 2012-06-25
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 143983881X

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

Reducing Suicide
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 512
Release: 2002-10-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309169437

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.

Myths about Suicide

Myths about Suicide
Author: Thomas Joiner
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2011-11-30
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0674061985

Around the world, more than a million people die by suicide each year. Yet many of us know very little about a tragedy that may strike our own loved onesÑand much of what we think we know is wrong. This clear and powerful book dismantles myth after myth to bring compassionate and accurate understanding of a massive international killer. Drawing on a fascinating array of clinical cases, media reports, literary works, and scientific studies, Thomas Joiner demolishes both moralistic and psychotherapeutic clichŽs. He shows that suicide is not easy, cowardly, vengeful, or selfish. It is not a manifestation of "suppressed rage" or a side effect of medication. Threats of suicide, far from being idle, are often followed by serious attempts. People who are prevented once from killing themselves will not necessarily try again. The risk for suicide, Joiner argues, is partly genetic and is influenced by often agonizing mental disorders. Vulnerability to suicide may be anticipated and treated. Most important, suicide can be prevented. An eminent expert whose own father's death by suicide changed his life, Joiner is relentless in his pursuit of the truth about suicide and deeply sympathetic to such tragic waste of life and the pain it causes those left behind.

Why Did Daddy End His Life? Why Did He Have to Die?

Why Did Daddy End His Life? Why Did He Have to Die?
Author: Samantha Pekh
Publisher: Balboa Press
Total Pages: 29
Release: 2017-05-22
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1504374959

This book, which is written for children between the ages of five and twelve years, provides a resource that parents and caregivers can use to support and guide their children through the difficult process of suicide bereavement. Explaining suicide is not a task that parents are usually prepared for. Parents and caregivers often feel lost and overwhelmed at the prospect of having to discuss suicide with their children. Written from the perspective of a child, this illustrated story provides a fictional character for children to relate to. The story guides children through the difficult emotions they may feel, but often find difficult to express. It ends by reassuring children that they can survive the pain of their loss, even though it currently feels unbearable. Parents and caregivers should read this book with their children. This book provides a means to explain suicide and suicide bereavement in a way that children can understand, while also giving children permission to talk openly about their loss. The goal is to increase the sense of connection between parents and caregivers and their children and to help children feel understood and supported. In the supplementary parents guide, the author answers some of the common questions that arise for parents and caregivers, and covers specific examples of how they can respond to their children when discussing the suicide.

The Virgin Suicides

The Virgin Suicides
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Publisher: Vintage Canada
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2011-09-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307401936

First published in 1993, The Virgin Suicides announced the arrival of a major new American novelist. In a quiet suburb of Detroit, the five Lisbon sisters—beautiful, eccentric, and obsessively watched by the neighborhood boys—commit suicide one by one over the course of a single year. As the boys observe them from afar, transfixed, they piece together the mystery of the family’s fatal melancholy, in this hypnotic and unforgettable novel of adolescent love, disquiet, and death. Jeffrey Eugenides evokes the emotions of youth with haunting sensitivity and dark humor and creates a coming-of-age story unlike any of our time. Adapted into a critically acclaimed film by Sofia Coppola, The Virgin Suicides is a modern classic, a lyrical and timeless tale of sex and suicide that transforms and mythologizes suburban middle-American life.

Night Falls Fast

Night Falls Fast
Author: Kay Redfield Jamison
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2011-01-12
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0307779890

Critical reading for parents, educators, and anyone wanting to understand the tragic epidemic of suicide—”a powerful book [that] will change people's lives—and, doubtless, save a few" (Newsday). The first major book in a quarter century on suicide—and its terrible pull on the young in particular—Night Falls Fast is tragically timely: suicide has become one of the most common killers of Americans between the ages of fifteen and forty-five. From the author of the best-selling memoir, An Unquiet Mind—and an internationally acknowledged authority on depression—Dr. Jamison has also known suicide firsthand: after years of struggling with manic-depression, she tried at age twenty-eight to kill herself. Weaving together a historical and scientific exploration of the subject with personal essays on individual suicides, she brings not only her remarkable compassion and literary skill but also all of her knowledge and research to bear on this devastating problem. This is a book that helps us to understand the suicidal mind, to recognize and come to the aid of those at risk, and to comprehend the profound effects on those left behind.

Understanding the Complex Phenomenon of Suicide: From Research to Clinical Practice

Understanding the Complex Phenomenon of Suicide: From Research to Clinical Practice
Author: Domenico De Berardis
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Total Pages: 139
Release: 2018-05-08
Genre:
ISBN: 2889454681

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.

Suicide, a Study in Sociology

Suicide, a Study in Sociology
Author: Émile Durkheim
Publisher: Glencoe, Ill. : Free Press
Total Pages: 418
Release: 1951
Genre: Psychology
ISBN:

Translated from French, this classic provides readers with an understanding of the impetus for suicide and its psychological impact on the victim, family, and society.