This article summarizes data on the economic costs of suicide and suicide attempts as well as the policy recommendations based on these costs.
Resource Types: Article/Chapter
Reformulating suicide risk formulation: From prediction to prevention
Suicide risk has been typically assessed as low, medium and high despite little evidence for its validity, reliability, or utility. The authors present an alternative which uses four distinct judgments to directly inform intervention plans: (1) risk status (the patient’s risk relative to a specified subpopulation), (2) risk state (the patient’s risk compared to baseline or other specified time points), (3) available resources from which the patient can draw in crisis, and (4) foreseeable changes that may exacerbate risk. They provide a case illustration. The model is intended to provide psychiatric education with a more prevention-oriented means of assessing suicide risk.
Prevalence and characteristics of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence victimization: National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, United States, 2011
This report examines sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence victimization using data from 2011. The report describes the overall prevalence of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence victimization; racial/ethnic variation in prevalence; how types of perpetrators vary by violence type; and the age at which victimization typically begins. For intimate partner violence, the report also examines a range of negative impacts experienced as a result of victimization, including the need for services.
Citation: MMWR: Surveillance Summaries, 63(SS-8), 1-18.
Guns & suicide: The hidden toll
This article examines firearm suicide and issues that confer risk such as ownership and impulsivity. It provides a profile of the Gun Shop Project, a public health program engaging gun shop owners to prevent suicide.
Expert recommendations for U.S. research priorities in suicide prevention
This supplement to American Journal of Preventive Medicine represents a subset of presentations made by suicide prevention experts to inform A Prioritized Research Agenda for Suicide Prevention: An Action Plan to Save Lives, an initiative of the Action Alliance’s Research Prioritization Task Force. Suicide prevention research experts from various discipline areas address the current state of the science in suicide prevention and recommend specific research priorities to inform suicide prevention efforts throughout the United States.
Suicide in late life: Unique factors and enduring treatment gaps
Dr. Brad Karlin discusses suicide data trends associated with older adults, mental illness patterns and risk factors specific to them, ways in which it can be addressed.
Suicide risk categorisation of psychiatric inpatients: What it might mean and why it is of no use
This article presents study findings suggesting that the methods used to categorize suicide risk may not help guide clinical decision making.
Suicide contagion & suicide clusters
This brief article defines and describes suicide contagion and suicide clusters in the context of a celebrity suicide.
Suicide among adults aged 35–64 years, United States, 1999–2010
This CDC data report (MMWR) highlights recent 28% increase in suicide rates among adults between the ages of 35 and 64 between 1999 and 2010 while suicide rate changes for younger and older groups were comparatively small. Increases were particularly high among non-Hispanic whites and American Indian/Alaska Natives and for both men and women for all three leading mechanisms: hanging/suffocation, poisoning, and firearms. Suicide rates increased across the U.S. with statistically significant increases in 39 states and all four regions of the country.
Characteristics of suicide among Alaska Native and Alaska non-Native people, 2003–2008
This report presents information on the epidemiology of suicide among Alaska Native and Alaska non-Native people from 2003 to 2008 to help inform future suicide prevention efforts.
Recommendations are provided for consideration including increasing summary reporting of surveillance data to regional and community-based prevention programs; increasing toxicology testing of decedents; increasing alcohol abuse and depression screening at health care facilities and other locations; increasing the use of gun locks and gun safes in firearm safety programs; investigating ways to expand the delivery of behavioral health care to non-hub communities; investigating ways to reach young adult males under 30, a high risk population identified by the study; and continuing collaborative suicide prevention efforts at the federal, state, and tribal levels.