In the year 2000, approximately one million people died from suicide: a "global" mortality rate of 16 per 100,000, or one death every 40 seconds. In the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide. Suicide is now among the three leading causes of death among those aged 15-44 years (both sexes); these figures do not include suicide attempts up to 20 times more frequent than completed suicide. Suicide worldwide is estimated to represent 1.8% of the total global burden of disease in1998, and 2.4% in countries with market and former socialist economies in 2020. Although traditionally suicide rates have been highest among the male elderly, rates among young people have been increasing to such an extent that they are now the group at highest risk in a third of countries, in both developed and developing countries. Mental disorders (particularly depression and substance abuse) are associated with more than 90% of all cases of suicide; however, suicide results from many complex sociocultural factors and is more likely to occur particularly during periods of socioeconomic, family and individual crisis situations (e.g., loss of a loved one, employment, honour). The economic costs associated with completed and attempted suicide are estimated to be in the billions of dollars. One million lives lost each year are more than those lost from wars and murder annually in the world. It is three times the catastrophic loss of life in the tsunami disaster in Asia in 2005. Every day of the year, the number of suicides is equivalent to the number of lives lost in the attack on the World Trade Center Twin Towers on 9/11 in 2001. Everyone should be aware of the warning signs for suicide: Someone threatening to hurt or kill him/herself, or taking of wanting to hurt or kill him/herself; someone looking for ways to kill him/herself by seeking access to firearms, available pills, or other means; someone talking or writing about death, dying or suicide, when these actions are out of the ordinary for the person. Also, high risk of suicide is generally associated with hopelessness; rage, uncontrolled anger, seeking revenge; acting reckless or engaging in risky activities, seemingly without thinking; feeling trapped – like there’s no way out; increased alcohol or drug use; withdrawing from friends, family and society, anxiety, agitation, unable to sleep or sleeping all the time; dramatic mood changes; no reason for living; no sense of purpose in life. Table 1: Understanding and helping the suicidal individual should be a task for all. Suicide Myths How to Help the Suicidal Person Warning Sights of Suicide Myth: Suicidal people just want to die. Fact: Most of the time, suicidal people are torn between wanting to die and wanting to live. Most suicidal individuals don’t want death; they just want to stoop the great psychological or emotional pain they are experiencing -Listen; -Accept the person’s feelings as they are; -Do not be afraid to talk about suicide directly -Ask them if they developed a plan of suicide; -Expressing suicidal feelings or bringing up the topic of suicide; -Giving away prized possessions settling affairs, making out a will; -Signs of depression: loss of pleasure, sad mood, alterations in sleeping/eating patterns, feelings of hopelessness; Myth: People who commit suicide do not warn others. Fact: Eight out of every 10 people who kill themselves give definite clues to their intentions. They leave numerous clues and warnings to others, although clues may be non-verbal of difficult to detect. -Remove lethal means for suicide from person’s home -Remind the person that depressed feelings do change with time; -Point out when death is chosen, it is irreversible; -Change of behavior (poor work or school performance) -Risk-taking behaviors -Increased use of alcohol or drugs -Social isolation -Developing a specific plan for suicide Myth: People who talk about suicide are only trying to get attention. They won’t really do it. Fact: Few commit suicide without first letting someone know how they feel. Those who are considering suicide give clues and warnings as a cry for help. Over 70% who do threaten to commit suicide either make an attempt or complete the act. -Express your concern for the person; -Develop a plan for help with the person; -Seek outside emergency intervention at a hospital, mental health clinic or call a suicide prevention center Myth: Don’t mention suicide to someone who’s showing signs of depression. It will plant the idea in their minds and they will act on it. Fact: Many depressed people have already considered suicide as an option. Discussing it openly helps the suicidal person sort through the problems and generally provides a sense of relief and understanding. Suicide is preventable. Most suicidal individuals desperately want to live; they are just unable to see alternatives to their problems. Most suicidal individuals give definite warnings of their suicidal intentions, but others are either unaware of the significance of these warnings or do not know how to respond to them. Talking about suicide does not cause someone to be suicidal; on the contrary the individual feel relief and has the opportunity to experience an empathic contact. Suicide profoundly affects individuals, families, workplaces, neighbourhoods and societies. The economic costs associated with suicide and self-inflicted injuries are estimated to be in the billions of dollars. Surviving family members not only suffer the trauma of losing a loved one to suicide, and may themselves be at higher risk for suicide and emotional problems. Mental pain is the basic ingredient of suicide. Edwin Shneidman calls such pain “psychache” [1], meaning an ache in the psyche. Shneidman suggested that the key questions to ask a suicidal person are ‘Where do you hurt?’ and ‘How may I help you?’. If the function of suicide is to put a stop to an unbearable flow of painful consciousness, then it follows that the clinician’s main task is to mollify that pain. Shneidman (1) also pointed out that the main sources of psychological pain, such as shame, guilt, rage, loneliness, hopelessness and so forth, stem from frustrated or thwarted psychological needs. These psychological needs include the need for achievement, for affiliation, for autonomy, for counteraction, for exhibition, for nurturance, for order and for understanding. Shneidman [2], who is considered the father of suicidology, has proposed the following definition of suicide: ‘Currently in the Western world, suicide is a conscious act of self-induced annihilation, best understood as a multidimensional malaise in a needful individual who defines an issue for which the suicide is perceived as the best solution’. Shneidman has also suggested that ‘that suicide is best understood not so much as a movement toward death as it is a movement away from something and that something is always the same: intolerable emotion, unendurable pain, or unacceptable anguish. Strategies involving restriction of access to common methods of suicide have proved to be effective in reducing suicide rates; however, there is a need to adopt multi-sectoral approaches involving other levels of intervention and activities, such as crisis centers. There is compelling evidence indicating that adequate prevention and treatment of depression, alcohol and substance abuse can reduce suicide rates. School-based interventions involving crisis management, self-esteem enhancement and the development of coping skills and healthy decision making have been demonstrated to reduce the risk of suicide among the youth. Worldwide, the prevention of suicide has not been adequately addressed due to basically a lack of awareness of suicide as a major problem and the taboo in many societies to discuss openly about it. In fact, only a few countries have included prevention of suicide among their priorities. Reliability of suicide certification and reporting is an issue in great need of improvement. It is clear that suicide prevention requires intervention also from outside the health sector and calls for an innovative, comprehensive multi-sectoral approach, including both health and non-health sectors, e.g., education, labour, police, justice, religion, law, politics, the media.

The Global Study on Homicide 2013 is based on comprehensive data from more than 200 countries/territories, and examines and analyses patterns and trends in homicide at the global, regional, national and sub-national levels. Such analysis is fundamental to understanding the various factors and dynamics that drive homicide, so that measures can be developed to reduce violent crime. The Study provides a typology of homicide, including homicide related to crime, coexistence-related homicide, and socio-political homicide. The nature of crime in several countries emerging from conflict, the role of various mechanisms in killing, and the response of the criminal justice system to homicide are also analyzed. A further chapter examines homicide at the sub-national level, and includes analysis at the city-level for selected global cities.

This study presents an evaluation of the past, present and future of suicidal behaviour and efforts to prevent or facilitate suicide. Authors from the varying disciplines of psychology, sociology and psychiatry analyze suicide in the opening chapters. Through the exploration of the roles of these disciplines, the roles of primary physicians, and the impact of suicide prevention education in schools, the contributors describe the history of suicidology and the changes necessary for improvement. The book concludes with a section detailing the goals and activities of organizations designed to prevent or facilitate suicide.

Stress is a universal phenomenon that impacts adversely on most people. This volume provides a readily accessible compendium that focuses on the physical and psychological consequences of stress for individuals and society. Clinical attention focuses on disorders of the stress control system (e.g. Cushing's Syndrome: Addison's Disease) and the adverse impact of stress on human physical and mental health. Detailed reviews address disorders such as PTSD, anxiety, major depression, psychoses and related disorders such as combat fatigue and burnout. The work covers interactions between stress and neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, as well as stress-immune-inflammatory interactions in relation to cancer and autoimmune and viral diseases. Emphasis is also placed on the role of stress in obesity, hypertension, diabetes type II and other features of the metabolic syndrome which has now reached epidemic proportions in the USA and other countries. - Chapters offer impressive scope with topics addressing animal studies, disaster, diurnal rhythms, drug effects and treatments, cognition and emotion, physical illness, psychopathology, immunology and inflammation, lab studies and tests, and psychological / biochemical / genetic aspects - Richly illustrated in full color with over 200 figures - Articles carefully selected by one of the world's most preeminent stress researchers and contributors represent the most outstanding scholarship in the field, with each chapter providing fully vetted and reliable expert knowledge

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.

Stress: Concepts, Cognition, Emotion, and Behavior: Handbook in Stress Series, Volume 1, examines stress and its management in the workplace and is targeted at scientific and clinical researchers in biomedicine, psychology, and some aspects of the social sciences. The audience is appropriate faculty and graduate and undergraduate students interested in stress and its consequences. The format allows access to specific self-contained stress subsections without the need to purchase the whole nine volume Stress handbook series. This makes the publication much more affordable than the previously published four volume Encyclopedia of Stress (Elsevier 2007) in which stress subsections were arranged alphabetically and therefore required purchase of the whole work. This feature will be of special significance for individual scientists and clinicians, as well as laboratories. In this first volume of the series, the primary focus will be on general stress concepts as well as the areas of cognition, emotion, and behavior. - Offers chapters with impressive scope, covering topics including the interactions between stress, cognition, emotion and behaviour - Features articles carefully selected by eminent stress researchers and prepared by contributors representing outstanding scholarship in the field - Includes rich illustrations with explanatory figures and tables - Includes boxed call out sections that serve to explain key concepts and methods - Allows access to specific self-contained stress subsections without the need to purchase the whole nine volume Stress handbook series

This comprehensive work provides a sourcebook of information about the substantive, methodological, and policy-oriented aspects of homicide research in Europe. Part one of this work covers the most recent substantive and methodological information about European homicide research. The second part will contains detailed case studies on homicide research in 15-20 individual European nations. This work will be both conceptual and practical. conceptual and practical. Conceptual aspects will focus on theoretical frameworks and patterns and trends of violence in Europe. Practical aspects will examine the results of empirical research, topics relating to different data sources and the variation of legal definitions of violence throughout Europe, and policy issues relating to variation in homicide prevention and punishment of homicide offenders throughout Europe. This handbook will not only provide an up-to-date reference that brings together known information, but will also offer previously unpublished comprehensive literature reviews and original research findings. The editors’ distinctive approach is to provide readers with an English-language central source of information about the voluminous literature on European homicide research that is currently spread widely in dozens of different European and American journals.