Suicide is a perplexing human behavior that remains among the leading causes of death worldwide, responsible for more deaths each year than all wars, genocide, and homicide combined. Although suicide and other forms of self-injury have baffled scholars and clinicians for thousands of years, the past few decades have brought significant leaps in our understanding of these behaviors. This volume provides a comprehensive summary of the most important and exciting advances in our understanding of suicide and self-injury and our ability to predict and prevent it. Comprised of a formidable who's who in the field, the handbook covers the full spectrum of topics in suicide and self-injury across the lifespan, including the classification of different self-injurious behaviors, epidemiology, assessment techniques, and intervention. Chapters probe relevant issues in our society surrounding suicide, including assisted suicide and euthanasia, suicide terrorism, overlap between suicidal behavior and interpersonal violence, ethical considerations for suicide researchers, and current knowledge on survivors of suicide. The most comprehensive handbook on suicide and self-injury to date, this volume is a must-read text for graduate students, fellows, academic and research psychologists, and other researchers working in the brain and behavioral sciences.

Suicide is a perplexing human behavior that remains among the leading causes of death worldwide, responsible for more deaths each year than all wars, genocide, and homicide combined. Although suicide and other forms of self-injury have baffled scholars and clinicians for thousands of years, the past few decades have brought significant leaps in our understanding of these behaviors. The Oxford Handbook of Suicide and Self-Injury provides a comprehensive summary of the most important and exciting advances in our understanding of suicide and self-injury and our ability to predict and prevent it. Comprised of a formidable who's who in the field, this volume covers the full spectrum of topics in suicide and self-injury across the lifespan, including the classification of different self-injurious behaviors, epidemiology, assessment techniques, and intervention. Chapters probe relevant issues in our society surrounding suicide, including assisted suicide and euthanasia, suicide terrorism, overlap between suicidal behavior and interpersonal violence, ethical considerations for suicide researchers, and current knowledge on survivors of suicide. The most comprehensive handbook on suicide and self-injury to date, this volume is a must-read for anyone interested in the most current thinking and research on these devastating behaviors.

Suicide is a serious public health problem worldwide, accounting for more loss of life annually than all forms of war and interpersonal violence combined. Despite this fact, suicide remains a poorly understood problem, and progress in understanding suicidal behavior around the globe has been slow. This book represents a major advance in our understanding by reporting the results of the largest, most representative study of suicidal behaviors conducted to date - the WHO World Mental Health Survey Initiative, interviewing more than 100,000 people from 21 countries on 6 continents. Previously unavailable data on the prevalence, onset, persistence, risk, protective factors and treatment of suicidal behaviors are presented and discussed, along with the implications of these findings. This volume provides valuable information for clinicians, scientists, policy-makers and anyone seeking to understand the occurrence of suicidal behavior worldwide.