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.

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 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).