suicide

Suicide

What Is Suicide?

This is the deliberate taking of a person's own life.

Who Are At Most Risk Of Suicide?

The following list describes factors that make suicide more likely:

Having attempted suicide before
Being a Man
Being aged over 45
Being divorced, Widowed, or Single
Being either very rich or very poor
Being unemployed or retired
During springtime or early summer

Having a psychiatric disorder (see below)
Being physically ill (see below)
Feeling lonely
Having no or a limited number of family and friends
Having recently experienced a loss (e.g. death, job, relationship break-up)
Having recently been diagnosed with a terminal illness or degenerative condition (e.g. Dementia)
Parasuicide

What Role Does Psychiatric Disorder Play In Suicide?

Psychiatric disorder is present in 9 out of 10 people that commit suicide. The most risky disorders are listed below:

What Role Does Physical Illness Play In Suicide?

The most risky physical illnesses are listed below:

Long-term painful illnesses
Epilepsy

What Are Common Methods Of Suicide?

The most common method of suicide is taking an overdose of drugs. These may be common painkillers or the very ones that are prescribed for the person by their doctor. Often these may be combined with alcohol. Other methods include:

hanging
gassing
cutting the wrists
drowning
throwing oneself in front of a train/car
throwing oneself off a high building
setting fire to building person is in (arson)
shooting oneself

How Can You Tell Who Is At Risk?

Risk factors such as those mentioned above should always be taken into account when assessing who is at risk. However, any statement like "there is no future" or "I'm going to kill myself" should always be taken very seriously.

Most people who go on to commit suicide have told someone beforehand of their thoughts. 2 out of 3 people have visited their Doctor in the last month. 1 in 4 are psychiatric outpatients (not in hospital) at the time of their death, and half of these would have seen a psychiatrist in the past week.

However, there are a number of people who commit suicide without telling anybody.

What Should Happen If Someone Is Decided to Be A Severe Risk?

If there is a serious risk of suicide the patient should be admitted to hospital immediately, even if this means making it compulsory (see Mental Health Act).

Once in hospital the patient may be put on something called special or continuous observation. This means that the patient will have a nurse with them 24 hours a day until they are no longer considered to be a serious risk. They may well be asked to remain in their night clothes, so that they do not have any objects about their person with which they may be able to hurt themselves (e.g. pills, dressing gown cord, tie, or sharp object such as a penknife).

What Treatment Will They Receive?

Treatment will depend on the specific circumstances of the patient. However, because depression is involved in a large number of patients at risk of suicide, treatments such as anti-depressant medication and possibly ECT are commonly options.

Once there is improvement there should be a planned program of aftercare when the person returns home. This may include regular appointments with a doctor and/or a community psychiatric nurse (CPN), and/or a Social Worker.

What About The Family & Friends?

Suicide or an attempted Suicide is extremely traumatic for those people close to the person involved. These people should consider seeking some help if they feel that they need it. Sometimes these people can be forgotten.

Also those people who may have been around at the time of an attempt (e.g. police, paramedics e.t.c.) can be severely affected by what they see. This can sometimes lead to conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

We are creating a SimplePsych factsheet on Suicide and Parasuicide which goes into more detail while still using easy to understand English. If you would be interested at this service being offered to you please let us know by emailing us Click Here

Thank you.

* RECOMMENDED BOOKS *

If you are interested in going into even more depth, the following book(s), sold by Amazon.co.uk, are recommended by us. Each is followed by a rating for ease of reading (1-3).

1=Simple and Easy to comprehend.
2=More Complex but still a good read.
3=Very Complex, only for professionals/those studying to degree level.

Suicide & Attempted Suicide (Stone)

RATING SCORE = 2 Highly Controversial, as well as providing comprehensive information, this book includes a section on how to commit suicide and what things can go wrong if you fail. We thought long and hard about recommending this book, but in the end we feel it is a mature and choice-enhancing book. You may agree or you may just think it is sick. Please let us know what you think.

International Handbook Of Suicide & Attempted Suicide (Hawton & Van Heering)

RATING SCORE = 3 A thorough and up-to-date textbook (published February 2000) for Professionals and Students.

Choosing To Live: How To Defeat Suicide Through Cognitive Therapy (Ellis, Newman & Newman)

RATING SCORE = 2 Intended for everyone, but quite complex in parts.

Healing After The Suicide Of A Loved One (Smolin & Guinan)

RATING SCORE = 1 Relatives of people who have committed suicide have found this book has helped them.

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