This new edition of Textbook of Suicide Assessment and Management follows the natural sequence of events in evaluating and treating patients: assessment, major mental disorders, treatment, treatment settings, special populations, special topics, prevention, and the aftermath of suicide.

Providing clinically useful information for mental health professionals encountering patients at risk, The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Suicide Assessment and Management calls on the authority of 40 expert contributors reflecting a wide range of clinical and forensic experience.

This book has been replaced by Managing Suicidal Risk, Third Edition, ISBN 978-1-4625-5269-6.

Today's psychiatrists practice in an environment that poses difficult challenges. Both treatment time and duration are limited by insurance requirements; many facilities are understaffed; split treatment arrangements are typical; and high-risk, acutely suicidal patients are admitted to inpatient units for short lengths of stay. In addition, law now plays a pervasive role in the practice of psychiatry. The doctor-patient relationship is no longer defined solely by the involved parties. Clinicians must juggle these requirements and limitations while providing the very best care to their patients, especially those at high risk. Preventing Patient Suicide: Clinical Assessment and Management provides the wisdom of Dr. Robert I. Simon's vast clinical experience, combined with the latest insights from the evidence-based psychiatric literature, to offer a cutting-edge survey of suicide prevention and management techniques. The author: Addresses sudden improvement in high-risk suicidal patients, a phenomenon both common and perilous, with techniques for determining whether the improvement is real or feigned. Explores in depth the misuse of suicide risk assessment forms, with emphasis on their inherent limitations. Examines the many entrenched myths and traditions about suicide, exposing them to the critical light of evidence-based medicine, including the concept of "imminent suicide risk" and the myth of "passive suicide ideation". Discusses the continuum of chronic and acute high-risk suicidal patients, the fluidity with which one can become the other, and the difficulty in assessing these patients. Explores how the law and psychiatry interact in frequently occurring clinical situations, and the importance of therapeutic risk management. In addition, the book contains a variety of features that illuminate the subject and enhance the reader's understanding, including: Inclusion of illustrative case studies, combined with commentary on commonly occurring but complex clinical situations. Key points at the end of each chapter that identify critical information. A Suicide Risk Assessment Self-Test, a teaching instrument that consists of fifty questions designed to enhance clinician suicide risk assessment by incorporating evidence-based risk and protective factors. Dr. Simon provides a nuanced, empathic, yet pragmatic perspective on identifying, assessing, and managing the suicidal patient while successfully navigating a complex legal and clinical environment that poses its own risks to the practitioner.

Suicide risk assessment is a core competency that mental health professionals are expected to acquire during their training, yet the reality of potential suicides can prove daunting for busy practitioners faced with an overload of information on the subject. This book meets that challenge head-on by providing clinically useful information for anyone encountering patients at risk for suicide. The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Suicide Assessment and Management calls on the authority of 40 expert contributorsincluding members of the APA's Workgroup on Suicidal Behaviors, who developed the APA Practice Guideline for the Assessment and Treatment of Patients With Suicidal Behaviorsreflecting a wide range of clinical and forensic experience. The authors provide informative cases accompanied by analysis that integrates clinical findings with textual discussion, along with chapter-end "key points," in order to help practitioners ? understand demographic, gender, and cultural variables in suicide risk? use psychological tests and scales in assessment? assess risk in special populations, such as children and adolescents and the elderly, and jail and prison inmates? determine treatment options: psychopharmacological/ECT, psychodynamic, and collaborative (or "split") treatment ? manage suicide risk in the context of major mental disorders (depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety, personality disorders, and substance-related disorders), with specific guidelines for risk assessment? address suicide risk in outpatient, emergency, and inpatient and partial hospitalization settings, patient safety versus freedom of movement, and strategies for increasing the safety factor in various aspects of practice In addition to addressing the many facets of patient careincluding cautioning against a suicide risk factor created by limitations of benefits in managed-care situationsthe book also discusses clinician care: how practitioners can cope with the anxiety and fatigue arising from treating suicidal patients, the professional's role following a patient's suicide, legal issues involving standard of care and liability, and risk management guidelines for avoiding malpractice litigation. Suicide risk exists along an ever-changing continuum. This book underscores that risk assessment is a process, not an event. It clearly shows how sound assessment can lead to more effective management of patients at high risk for suicide.

A concise review of current research into suicide providing a guide to understanding this disease and its increasing incidence globally.

Charged with updating the preeminent text on suicide, the new editors of The American Psychiatric Association Publishing Textbook of Suicide Risk Assessment and Management opted not to simply revise existing chapters, but instead to steer a bold course, expanding, reconfiguring, and remaking the third edition to reflect the latest research, nomenclature, and clinical innovations. The editorial team and contributors -- two-thirds of whom are new to this edition -- have taken the intersection of suicide with both mental health and psychosocial issues as their organizing principle, exploring risk assessment and epidemiology in special populations, such as elderly patients, college students, military personnel, and the incarcerated as well as patients with a variety of psychological disorders, including bipolar spectrum, personality, depressive, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and other disorders and schizophrenia. In addition, the book discusses treatment options (such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, and pharmacotherapy) and settings (such as emergency services, outpatient, inpatient, and civil commitment) in detail, with clinical cases to contextualize the material. The new and revised content is extensive: A chapter on the influence of sleep and sleep disorders on suicide risk has been included that considers possible mechanisms for this link and discusses practical ways of assessing and managing sleep disorders to mitigate suicide risk. Nonsuicidal self-injury, the prevalence of which is particularly high among youth, is addressed in detail, differentiating it from and comparing it to suicide attempts, discussing risk assessment, considering safety interventions, examining treatment options, and exploring suicide contagion. No text on suicide would be complete without a serious exploration of the role of social media and the internet. The book presents an update on current research as it pertains to social networking and behavior, information access, and artificial intelligence and software, and includes suggestions for clinicians treating patients at risk for suicide. Physician-assisted dying (PAD), also referred to as "aid-in-dying," is arguably a form of suicide, and the book includes a thoughtful chapter considering the ethical and practical implications of PAD, the murky professional and legal obligations that may arise, the demographics of these patients, the settings and conditions under which PAD may occur, and the role of the attendant clinicians. A number of pedagogical features are included to help the reader learn and remember the material, including key clinical concepts and abundant case examples. Its diverse range of perspectives, broad relevance to a wide variety of clinicians, and absolutely authoritative coverage makes this new edition of The American Psychiatric Association Publishing Textbook of Suicide Risk Assessment and Management a worthy and indispensable successor.