Suicide
Medical Author: Roxanne Dryden-Edwards, MD
Medical Editor: Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
Suicide Warning Signs
Medical Author: Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
Medical Editor: William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR

Suicide is a major public health problem, with more than 32,000 persons dying by suicide each year in the United States, or about 80 suicides per day. In addition to completed suicides, another 1,500 unsuccessful suicide attempts occur each day. In the 18- to 65-year age group, suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. Suicide occurs in persons of all ages and backgrounds, but certain groups of people are at increased risk for suicide attempts. These include persons with a psychiatric illness and a past history of attempted suicide. Males are more likely than females to commit suicide, although attempts are more common among females. A family history of, or exposure to, suicide; altered levels of neurotransmitters in the brain; and impulsivity are other factors that may increase an individual's risk of suicide.
While suicide is not universally preventable, it is possible to recognize some warning signs and symptoms that may enable you or your loved ones to access treatment before a suicide attempt. It has been estimated that up to 75% of suicide victims display some warning signs or symptoms.
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What is suicide?
Suicide is the process of purposely ending one's own life. The way societies
view suicide varies widely according to culture and religion. For example, many
Western cultures, as well as mainstream Judaism, Islam, and Christianity tend to
view killing oneself as quite negative. One myth about suicide that may be the
result of this view is considering suicide to always be the result of a mental
illness. Some societies also treat a suicide attempt as if it were a crime.
However, suicides are sometimes seen as understandable or even honorable in
certain circumstances, such as in protest to persecution (for example, hunger strike),
as part of battle or resistance (for example, suicide pilots of World War II; suicide
bombers) or as a way of preserving the honor of a dishonored person (for example,
killing oneself to preserve the honor or safety of family members).
Nearly a million people worldwide commit suicide each year, with anywhere from 10
million to 20 million suicide attempts annually. About 30,000 people reportedly kill themselves each year in the United States. The true number of suicides is likely higher because some deaths that were thought to be an accident, like a single-car accident, overdose, or shooting, are not recognized as being a suicide. Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in males and the 16th leading cause of death in females. The higher frequency of completed suicides in males versus females is consistent across the life span. In the United States, boys 10 to 14 years
of age commit suicide twice as often as their female age peers. Boys 15 to 19 years of age complete suicide five times as often as girls their age, and men 20 to 24
years of age commit suicide 10 times as often as women their age. It is the third leading cause of death for people 10 to 24 years of age. Teen suicide statistics for adolescents 15 to 19 years of age indicate that from 1950-1990, the frequency of suicides increased by 300% and from 1990-2003, that rate decreased by 35%. While the rate of murder-suicide remains low at 0.0001%, the devastation it creates makes it a concerning public-health issue.
As opposed to suicidal behavior, self-mutilation is defined as deliberately
hurting oneself without meaning to cause one's own death. Examples of self-mutilating behaviors include cutting any part of the body,
usually of the wrists. Other self-injurious behaviors include self-burning, head banging, pinching, and
scratching.
Physician-assisted suicide is defined as ending the life of a person who is
terminally ill in a way that is either painless or minimally painful, for the
purpose of ending suffering of the individual. It is also called euthanasia and
mercy killing. In 1997, the United States Supreme Court ruled
against endorsing physician-assisted suicide as a constitutional right but
allowed for individual states to enact laws that permit it to be done. As of
2003, Oregon was the only state with laws that authorized physician-assisted
suicide. Physician-assisted suicide seems to be less offensive to
people compared to euthanasia that is done by a non-physician, although the
acceptability of both means to end life tends to increase as people age and with
the number of times the person who desires their own death repeatedly asks for
such assistance.
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Introduction
Children's health, or pediatrics,
focuses on the well-being of children from conception through adolescence. It is
vitally concerned with all aspects of children's growth and development and with
the unique opportunity that each child has to achieve their full potential as a
healthy adult.
Children's health was once a part of adult medicine. It
emerged in the 19th and early 20th century as a medical specialty because of the
gradual awareness that the health problems of children are different from those
of grown-ups. It was also recognized that a child's response to illness,
medications, and the environment depends upon the age of the child.
There are many aspects to children's health. Any organization of these aspects of
child health is necessarily arbitrary. For example, the topics could be
presented in alphabetical order. However, it seems most logical to start at the
beginning -- with the factors that d...
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