Suicide Prevention Guidelines Research Articles

Parasuicide online: Can suicide websites trigger suicidal behaviour in predisposed adolescents?

The present case report describes a 17-year-old female who explicitly visited suicide web forums, where she researched reliable suicide methods, contacted an anonymous user and purchased substances for the implementation of suicide. The risk of Internet use by vulnerable youth is discussed. Psychiatric exploration should include questions of manner and frequency of media use. The application of media guidelines for suicide prevention is demanded for websites, as are accessible self-help sites for suicidal persons targeted to youthful users.

Sex Differences in Suicide among Chemists

Suicides among twenty-eight female chemists and among sixty-three male chemists were investigated for age, marital status, educational qualifications, type of employment, minority status, chemical specialties, and method of suicide. Although work played a significant part in suicides by both males and females, there were marked sex differences. Isolation, the leading work-related factor, occurred more frequently and with greater intensity among women. Similarly, while the majority of women suffered some form of sex discrimination, none of the men did. The leading nonwork-related causes were interpersonal problems and mental illness, the latter also more common among women. Low self-esteem coupled with high achievement orientation was a dangerous combination of personality characteristics found twice as frequently in suicides by female as by male chemists. In conclusion, suicide prevention guidelines are proposed.

Suicide Prevention in the Hospital

Hospitals, both neuropsychiatric and medical-surgical, are responsible for perventing the suicide of patients under their care. Hospital populations are at higher risk because they include people in heightened physical or emotional distress and because the patients frequently have no other resources, making the hospital a primary source of support. Suicide does, in fact, occur in the hospital at a rate higher than in the general community. Review of such cases and of the suicide pervention policies of a wide variety of hospitals suggests a number of guidelines for suicide prevention in the areas of identification, environmental and procedural safeguards, communication, and general attitudes. Legal attitudes over the years have changed markedly with the courts continuing to stress the principle of foreseeability but now recognizing that pursuit of therapeutic goals requires the hospital to assume "therapeutic risks". These risks are evaluated primarily by the criterion of accepted community standards of care.