ABSTRACT

Every indicator confirms the alarming magnitude of the health and social consequences of suicide. Suicide attempters are estimated to have a risk of dying from suicide that is more than 100 times higher than that in the general population (Hawton and Fagg, 1988). Approximately 15 per cent of attempters will reattempt suicide within the first year following their attempt (Schmidtke et al., 1996; Van der Sande et al., 1997).