At least 1000 people commit suicide in the world every day, & for every person who commits suicide 8 attempt it. These are estimates from statistics that admittedly imcomplete & possibly conservative. Suicide has, however, ranked for years among the first 5 to 10 causes of death in most of Europe & North America &, while the mortality rates for many diseases have declined, there has been no improvement in those for suicide. A volume in the WHO Public Health Papers series discusses prevention.