Chapter One
Introduction
Robert I. Yufit and David Lester
The scourge of suicidal behavior touches many lives and knows few
boundaries. About 30,000 people are known to take their own lives in the
United States each year. In addition, many of those deaths recorded as accidental
or undetermined by coroners and medical examiners may have
been motivated by suicidal intent. Suicide is the eighth leading cause of
death in this country and, among young people 15 to 19 years of age,
suicide is exceeded in frequency as a cause of death only by accidental
deaths. Suicide occurs in every country in the world and among all racial
and ethnic groups. Being destitute and alone increases the risk of suicide,
but suicide occurs in all groups of the population, the young and the old,
the rich and the poor, the famous and those who remain unnoticed.
For each suicidal death that occurs, there are many more nonfatal suicidal
acts ranging in seriousness from mild overdoses and superficially
inflicted cuts to potentially lethal acts such as jumping from a high place
or ingesting a corrosive poison. It is estimated that there are about a quarter
of a million nonfatal suicide attempts each year in the United States.
Among people who have ... read full excerpt from Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention of Suicidal Behavior ebook
