A copycat suicide is defined as an emulation of another suicide that the person attempting suicide knows about either from local knowledge or due to accounts or depictions of the original suicide on television and in other media. The publicized suicide serves as a trigger, in the absence of protective factors, for the next suicide by a susceptible or suggestible person. This is referred to as suicide contagion.
A suicide method is any means by which a person may choose to end their life. Suicide attempts do not always result in death, and a non-fatal suicide attempt can leave the person with serious physical injuries, long-term health problems, and brain damage.
Suicide prevention is a collection of efforts to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide is often preventable, and the efforts to prevent it may occur at the individual, relationship, community, and society level. Suicide is a serious public health problem that can have long-lasting effects on individuals, families, and communities. Preventing suicide requires strategies at all levels of society. This includes prevention and protective strategies for individuals, families, and communities. Suicide can be prevented by learning the warning signs, promoting prevention and resilience, and committing to social change.
Suicide intervention is a direct effort to prevent a person or persons from attempting to take their own life or lives intentionally.
A suicide crisis, suicidal crisis or potential suicide is a situation in which a person is attempting to kill themselves or is seriously contemplating or planning to do so. It is considered by public safety authorities, medical practice, and emergency services to be a medical emergency, requiring immediate suicide intervention and emergency medical treatment. Suicidal presentations occur when an individual faces an emotional, physical, or social problem they feel they cannot overcome and considers suicide to be a solution. Clinicians usually attempt to re-frame suicidal crises, point out that suicide is not a solution and help the individual identify and solve or tolerate the problems.
Crisis intervention is a time-limited intervention with a specific psychotherapeutic approach to immediately stabilize those in crisis.
988 is a telephone number used in some NANP countries for a suicide prevention helpline. It is known as 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the United States and as 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline in Canada.
Youth suicide is when a young person, generally categorized as someone below the legal age of majority, deliberately ends their own life. Rates of youth suicide and attempted youth suicide in Western societies and other countries are high. Youth suicide attempts are more common among girls, but adolescent males are the ones who usually carry out suicide. Suicide rates in youths have nearly tripled between the 1960s and 1980s. For example, in Australia suicide is second only to motor vehicle accidents as its leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 25.
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse are risk factors. Some suicides are impulsive acts due to stress, relationship problems, or harassment and bullying. Those who have previously attempted suicide are at a higher risk for future attempts. Effective suicide prevention efforts include limiting access to methods of suicide such as firearms, drugs, and poisons; treating mental disorders and substance abuse; careful media reporting about suicide; improving economic conditions; and dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT). Although crisis hotlines are common resources, their effectiveness has not been well studied.
Norman Louis Farberow was an American psychologist, and one of the founding fathers of modern suicidology. He was among the three founders in 1958 of the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center, which became a base of research into the causes and prevention of suicide.
The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) is an international suicide prevention organization dedicated to preventing suicide and suicidal behaviour and to alleviating its effects. IASP leads the global role in suicide prevention by strategically developing an effective forum that is proactive in creating strong collaborative partnerships and promoting evidence-based action in order to reduce the incidence of suicide. The organisation is guided by a constitution and a 5-year strategy. Founded by Erwin Ringel and Norman Farberow in 1960, IASP provides a forum for mental health professionals, crisis workers, suicide survivors and all those affected by suicide and suicidal behaviour. As a membership-based organisation, IASP’s reach currently extends to about eighty countries worldwide.
Suicide is a major national public health issue in the United States. The country has one of the highest suicide rates among wealthy nations. In 2020, there were 45,799 recorded suicides, up from 42,773 in 2014, according to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). On average, adjusted for age, the annual U.S. suicide rate increased 30% between 2000 and 2020, from 10.4 to 13.5 suicides per 100,000 people. In 2018, 14.2 people per 100,000 died by suicide, the highest rate recorded in more than 30 years. Due to the stigma surrounding suicide, it is suspected that suicide is generally underreported. In April 2016, the CDC released data showing that the suicide rate in the United States had hit a 30-year high, and later in June 2018, released further data showing that the rate has continued to increase and has increased in every U.S. state except Nevada since 1999. From 2000 to 2020, more than 800,000 people died by suicide in the United States, with males representing 78.7% of all suicides that happened between 2000 and 2020. In 2022, a record high 49,500 people died by suicide, while the suicide rate in 2022 reached its highest level since 1941 at 14.3 per 100,000 persons. Surging death rates from suicide, drug overdoses and alcoholism, what researchers refer to as "deaths of despair", are largely responsible for a consecutive three year decline of life expectancy in the U.S. This constitutes the first three-year drop in life expectancy in the U.S. since the years 1915–1918.
Suicide is a major national public health issue in the India. 1.71 lakh suicides were recorded in 2022, registering a 4.2% increase over 2021 and a jump of 27% compared to 2018. The rate of suicide per one lakh population has increased to 12.4 in 2022 which is the highest rate of deaths from suicides since 1967, which is the earliest recorded year for this data. Suicides during 2022 increased by 27% in comparison to 2018 with India reporting highest number of suicides in the world. India's contribution to global suicide deaths increased from 25.3% in 1990 to 36.6% in 2016 among women, and from 18.7% to 24.3% among men. In 2016, suicide was the most common cause of death in both the age groups of 15–29 years and 15–39 years. Daily wage earners accounted for 26% of suicide victims, the largest group in the suicide data.
A suicide attempt is an act in which an individual tries to kill themselves but survives. Mental health professionals discourage describing suicide attempts as "failed" or "unsuccessful", as doing so may imply that a suicide resulting in death is a successful or desirable outcome.
Mark Stemmler was born on August 7, 1960, in Norwood, Massachusetts, United States. He was Professor of Psychological Methodology and Quality Assurance at the Faculty of Psychology and Sports Science, Bielefeld University from 2007 to 2011. He was also a member of the Center for Statistics at Bielefeld University. Currently he is Professor of Psychological Assessment at the Department of Psychology and Sports Science at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Since 2010 he is also Adjunct Professor at the College of Health and Human Development at the Pennsylvania State University.
Bullying suicide are considered together when the cause of suicide is attributable to the victim having been bullied, either in person or via social media. Writers Neil Marr and Tim Field wrote about it in their 2001 book Bullycide: Death at Playtime.
Diego De Leo is an Italian professor, doctor and psychiatrist. Until August 2015, he was the director of the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention (AISRAP), World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Research and Training in Suicide Prevention at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. He has been on the editorial board of Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention since 1990, was its Editor-in-Chief from 2008 to early 2018, and is now Editor emeritus of the journal. He is frequently quoted in Australian news reports as an expert on suicide prevention.
United States military veteran suicide is an ongoing phenomenon regarding the high rate of suicide among U.S. military veterans in comparison to the general civilian public. A focus on preventing veteran suicide began in 1958 with the opening of the first suicide prevention center in the United States. During the mid-1990s, a paradigm shift in addressing veteran suicide occurred with the development of a national strategy which included several Congressional Resolutions. More advancements were made in 2007, when the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act created a comprehensive program including outreach at each Veterans Affairs Office (VA) and the implementation of a 24-hour crisis hotline. PTSD, depression, and combat-related guilt in veterans are often related to suicide as it can be difficult for veterans to transition to civilian life.
In 2014, the WHO ranked Nepal as the 7th in the global suicide rate. The estimated annual suicides in Nepal are 6,840 or 24.9 suicides per 100,000 people. Data on suicide in Nepal are primarily based on police reports and therefore rely on mortality statistics. However, the burden of suicide in communities is likely to be higher, particularly among women, migrant workers, and populations affected by disasters.
Suicide in Mozambique is a significant national social issue. It has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, and Mozambique is Africa's most suicide-prone area. However, suicide only accounts for a fraction of the deaths in the country. Mozambique's mental health infrastructure is considerably understaffed, with only 13 psychiatrists.
