Armin Schmidtke – författare

Suicide Prevention: A Holistic Approach contains the selected and edited papers that were presented during the congress Suicide, Disease, Disadvantage, A Holistic Approach, organized by the International Association for Suicide Prevention, which was held in June 1995, in Venice. Suicide prevention is still sadly neglected by governments and public health authorities, despite the fact that in several Western countries suicide has become the primary cause of death among younger age groups. The selected papers express the need for a holistic viewpoint in suicide management. The subjects range from parasuicide to the role of the media, from the special type of psychotherapeutic approach required to the most recent guidelines in pharmacological treatment, from a homage to the memory of Erwin Ringel to the presentation of specific national prevention schemes. The book will be of interest to public health workers, doctors, psychologists and social workers, as well as voluntary staff and their organizations, and to all those who make suicide prevention one of their primary interests.

This text contains the selected and edited papers that were presented during the congress Suicide, Disease, Disadvantage, A Holistic Approach, organized by the International Association for Suicide Prevention, which was held in June 1995, in Venice. Suicide prevention is still neglected by governments and public health authorities, despite the fact that in several Western countries suicide has become the primary cause of death among younger age groups. The selected papers express the need for a holistic viewpoint in suicide management. The subjects range from parasuicide to the role of the media, from the special type of psychotherapeutic approach required to the most recent guidelines in pharmacological treatment, from a homage to the memory of Erwin Ringel to the presentation of specific national prevention schemes. The book should be of interest to public health workers, doctors, psychologists and social workers, as well as voluntary staff and their organizations, and to all those who make suicide prevention one of their primary interests.

Contributions from the First European Symposium on Empirical Research into Suicidal Behavior, Held March 19-22, 1986 in Munich. Initiated by Arbeitsgemeinschaft zur Erforschung Suizidalen Verhaltens with Deutsche Gesellschaft fürSelbstmordverhütung

This volume resulted from the First European Symposium on Em- pirical Research into Suicidal Behavior. The symposium was initi- ated by the Study Group on Suicidal Behavior (Arbeitsgemein- schaft zur Erforschung suizidalen V erhaltens) in collaboration with the German Society for the Prevention of Suicide (Deutsche Ge- sellschaft fUr Selbstmordverhutung). The local organization of this symposium, which took place in Munich, was performed by the staff of the Psychiatric Department of the University of Technol- ogy, Munich (Head: Prof. H. Lauter). This volume contains contributions held at the symposium as well as papers especially prepared for this book. It thus fulfills the aim of providing an overview of the current state of research in the field of empirical suicidology with respect to epidemiology, bio- logical and psychological risk factors, follow-up, and treatment evaluation. We are grateful to all who contributed to this book by submitting papers or making critical comments. We would especially like to thank Mrs. D. Keck for her valuable cooperation.We have to thank the following pharmaceutical companies for financial support: Organon (Munchen), Ciba Geigy (Frankfurt), Tropon (Kaln), Galenus (Mannheim), Wander (Nurnberg).

In many countries of the world the number of persons that commit or attempt suicide has risen considerably over the past two decades. Particularly among young people suicide rates have increased dramatically, suicide now ranking as the second or third cause of death among them.The causes of this development have been questioned by health care workers, scientists and policy makers. Although much still remains unknown, it has become increasingly clear that one way in which a society affects the probability that an individual will die by his or her own hand is through the attitudes it adopts towards suicide.Modern society confronts people more and more often with attitudes and models, such as in the mass media, that express a permissive stance towards voluntary death in a variety of circumstances. Evidence suggest that imitation might indeed play a significant role in the frequency of suicide.A related aspect is the attitudes care givers entertain themselves towards suicide. This affects both the way in which they approach and treat individuals in suicidal crisis as well as the readiness of these individuals to look for professional help.The present volume presents an overview of important recent work on the influences of societal and care givers' attitudes on suicide as well provoking premature suicidal deaths.