Year: 1983 Source: Archives of General Psychiatry, v.40, no.3, (March 1983), p.343-344 SIEC No: 19821027

Suicide is a major preventable cause of death that rarely occurs in the absence of psychiatric illness. To prevent suicide there is a need to predict the degree of risk. But prediction is almost impossible when dealing with such an infrequent occurance. Also, there is a lack of constancy of suicidal intent in individuals. The root cause of despair needs to be relieved for successful prevention programmes.