r every male suicide attempt there are three female attempts. The majority of overdose attempts is unsuccessful and account for seventy percent of suicide attempts (SFSP: U.S. Suicide Statistics, 1996).It is estimated that for every suicide there is six survivors close to the victims that are affected. The statistics are stunning. How can we understand better why individuals would take their own life (McIntosh, 1997)The conclusion that suicide is closely related to psychiatric illness is what researchers have come up with. The three diagnoses with the highest risk are depression, alcoholism and schizophrenia. Seventy percent of suicides would have been diagnosed with major depression. Fifteen percent would have been diagnosed with alcoholism and four percent from schizophrenia. Researchers have used two methods to come up with these findings. The first one, the researchers find out what proportion of people who have committed suicide have been diagnosed with a psychiatric illness in their past. The second method of research involves what is called psychological autopsy. Psychological autopsy involves carefully questioning the family members and friends of the suicide victim. These questions are in reference to the individual state of mind, mood and behavior of the deceased individual preceding his or her death. The conclusion that the majority of suicides were the result of psychiatric illness before death has been strongly supported by these two research techniques (Williams, 1997). Major depression carries a fifteen- percent lifetime risk associated with suicide. Depression is a state of mind that results in feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, alienation, and uncontrollable urges to shed an unwanted self. Often, depression includes a variety of physical complaints that cannot be diagnosed as a physical illness. It is normal for any individual to feel depression at one time or another. In addition, there are many fa...
