Suicide rates continue to increase globally. The volume of research in this field has also expanded rapidly. In A Concise Guide to Understanding Suicide, leading researchers and clinicians provide a concise review of recent literature, report solutions achieved and give practical guidance for patient care to aid understanding and help prevent suicide. Each chapter is highly focused to provide pertinent information covering all major aspects of the field, from epidemiology and theories of causation through to treatment and prevention. This text will educate practising clinicians (psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, counsellors, and emergency room personnel) and other health care workers and researchers, as well as providing a pathway for undergraduate and graduate students interested in furthering their understanding of the complexities surrounding suicide. Further, mental health professionals and those in the social sciences will be extremely interested in this monograph, as will the University community, armed forces and interested lay public.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: looking to the future – how can research prevent suicide? Stephen H. Koslow, Pedro Ruiz and Charles B. Nemeroff; Part I. Understanding Suicide: 1. Brief history of suicide in Western cultures Leonardo Tondo; 2. Global epidemiology of suicide Pedro Ruiz; 3. Identification and screening of suicide risk Kelly Posner, Kseniya Yershova, Leora Amira, Jacqueline Buchanan , Adam Lesser and Erica Goldstein; 4. Rethinking suicide risk assessment and risk formulation Alan L. Berman and Morton M. Silverman; 5. High risk cognitive states Gregory K. Brown and Kelly Green; 6. Suicide clusters and suicide contagion Alison M. Lake and Madelyn S. Gould; 7. Ethnicity: how much of our understanding of suicide is applicable across ethnic cultures? Donna Holland Barnes, William B. Lawson and Kelsey Bell; 8. Suicide-related bereavement and grief M. Katherine Shear and Sidney Zisook; 9. Statistics Robert D. Gibbons; Part II. Suicidal Comorbidities: 10. Current and chronic signs and symptoms Jan Fawcett; 11. Anxiety, depression and suicide: epidemiology, pathophysiology and prevention Giampaolo Perna and Alan F. Schatzberg; 12. Suicide in schizophrenia Philip D. Harvey and Stacey Espaillat; 13. Personality disorders and suicide Katharine J. Nelson, Michael J. Miller, Alexandra Zagoloff, Melinda K. Westlund and S. Charles Schulz; 14. Suicide and substance use disorders Timothy W. Lineberry and Kathleen T. Brady; 15. Eating disorders and suicide April Smith, Tracy Witte and Scott Crow; 16. Suicidality and epilepsy: a complex relationship Andres M. Kanner; Part III. Special Populations: 17. Suicidal ideation and behavior during pregnancy and the postpartum period Jessica Coker and Zachary N. Stowe; 18. Childhood and adolescence Tina R. Goldstein, Jeffrey A. Bridge and David A. Brent; 19. Indigenous/native populations Deborah Goebert; 20. Bullying and suicidality in youth Anat Brunstein Klomek and Madelyn S. Gould; 21. College students Amanda L. McMillan and Steven J. Garlow; 22. Suicide in older adults Yeates Conwell and Kimberly Van Orden; 23. Armed forces James A. Naifeh, Matthew K. Nock and Robert J. Ursano; 24. Medical illness Gary J. Kennedy and Anne Rohs; 25. Suicide in the criminal justice system Steve Leifman and Tim Coffey; Part IV. Treatment: 26. Reduction of suicidal behavior in bipolar disorder patients during long-term treatment with lithium Leonardo Tondo and Ross J. Baldessarini; 27. Clozapine David Ayer and Herbert Y. Meltzer; 28. Antidepressants Molly Ryan and Charles B. Nemeroff; 29. Suicide and emergency room treatment Collin Davidson, Jennifer H. Olson-Madden, Marian E. Betz and Michael H. Allen; 30. Psychosocial approaches to reduce suicidal behavior Anne C. Ward, Catherine R. Glenn, Matthew K. Nock and Michael W. Otto; Part V. Research: Mediators and Moderators: 31. Genome-wide association studies of suicidal behaviors Marcus Sokolowski, Jerzy Wasserman and Danuta Wasserman; 32. Epigenetics Benoit Labonté and Gustavo Turecki; 33. The use of neuroimaging to investigate the pathophysiology of suicide Christopher R. Bailey, Allison M. Greene and Alexander Neumeister; 34. Brain serotonin in suicides with psychological autopsy Victoria Arango and Helene Bach; 35. The noradrenergic system in depression and suicide Michelle J. Chandley and Gregory A. Ordway; 36. Brain CRF and the HPA axis in suicide Ghanshyam N. Pandey; 37. Receptor signaling in suicide Yogesh Dwivedi; Part VI. Suicide Prevention: 38. Strategies to improve suicide prevention Sarah A. Struthers and Robert M. A. Hirschfeld; 39. Safety planning to prevent suicidal behavior Barbara Stanley, Emily A. Biggs and Gregory K. Brown; 40. Contracting for safety Michael Craig Miller; 41. Suicide and the media Jane Pirkis and R. Warwick Blood; Index.