Suicide

Definition

Suicide is the act of intentionally taking one's life. This definition, however, has been expanded to describe the range of thoughts and behaviors that are exhibited by individuals who are in some manner considering suicide. Suicidal ideation involves having thoughts of killing oneself or of being dead. Suicidal intent involves having a plan for how to kill oneself and intending to carry that plan out. Suicidal behavior is a broad term that includes all actions related to suicide (i.e., all the terms in this paragraph), but also includes some behaviors not captured by the other terms listed here, including actions related to suicide that did not result in an attempt, such as gathering bottles of pills (without taking them), or tying a noose (without using it). A suicide attempt occurs when an individual intends to take his or her own life, acts on that intent, but does not die. A suicide completion occurs when an individual intends to take his or her own life and dies as a result. One way to understand suicidal behavior is to think of it as a continuum with ideation at the far left and completion to the far right: In this way, behaviors toward the left of the continuum are relatively less severe and behaviors to the right are relatively more severe because of their differing proximities to suicide completions. This continuum view has not been empirically validated (e.g., it is possible that suicidal ideation differs from suicide attempt in kind rather than just in degree), and in any event, all suicidal behaviors are serious and warrant assessment by a mental health professional.

Importance and Context

Suicide is a serious health problem worldwide, including in the United States. In 2002, it is estimated that 31,655 individuals died by suicide, making suicide the 11th leading cause of death (homicide ranks 14th). Although rates vary somewhat year to year, approximately 30,000 people in the United States, and almost a million people die by suicide each year worldwide. On one hand, 30,000 U.S. deaths per year—one every 18 minutes or so—is a lot. On the other hand, suicide is a rare cause of death compared with other causes of death in the United States. For example, given that a person has died, the chance that the cause was heart disease or cancer is 52%. Given that someone has died, the chance that the cause of death was suicide is a little over 1%. However, the number of deaths by suicide (i.e., the number of suicide completions), though an accurate representation of the fact that death by suicide is rare, also greatly underestimates the magnitude of the problem: For every death by suicide, there are as many as 25 nonfatal attempts. Suicidal ideation is even more common than attempts: Estimates suggest that approximately 13% of individuals in the United States will experience substantial suicidal ideation at some point in their lifetime. Thus, suicide completions are relatively rare in the United States, but attempts are more common, and ideation is even more common.

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