Suicide: Prevalence, Theories, and Prevention (IN: Dying: Facing the Facts, ed. by H Wass, F M Berardo & R A Neimeyer)

This chapter focuses on adult suicides, provides USA suicide rates (1970-84), & discusses methodological considerations about how suicide is studied, lethality of method, communication of intent, & psychiatric & psychological models of suicide with emphasis on Durkheim’s theory. Other considerations such as imitative suicide, suicide in the elderly, prolonged illness, the “Right to Suicide,” suicide prevention information for individuals, & crisis intervention centres are discussed. (56 Refs.)