ABSTRACT
Each year suicide leads to the tragic and premature deaths of over 1 million individuals around the world with an estimated annual mortality of 14.5 per 100,000 people. This translates to one death occurring every 40 s. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death, making up 11.5% of all deaths (Hawton and van Heeringen 2009), though this burden is probably underestimated considering many third world countries appear to underreport suicide 9-10 times the actual amount (Hawton and van Heeringen 2009). While suicide rates have remained constant for the last decade, the three greatest causes of death (heart disease, cancer, and cerebrovascular disease) have all seen a decrease in death rates in this time period. Two of the most important risk factors for suicide are history of past suicide attempt (Harris and Barraclough 1997; Mann 2003) and a history of mood disorder. Every suicide is preceded by an estimated 8-25 suicide attempts, and 4% of depressed individuals die from suicide (Hawton and van Heeringen 2009). Additionally, more than half of individuals who attempt suicide had a major depressive episode at the time of the attempt.
