A Test of the Validity of the is Path Warm Warning Signs for Suicide

The 10 warning signs for suicide, encapsulated in the mnemonic IS PATH WARM, did not differentiate between genuine suicide notes and those written by people simulating a suicidal crisis or between notes written by completed suicides and those written by attempted suicides.

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Suicide in Nógrád County, Hungary, 1970-1994

Crisis ◽

10.1027//0227-5910.20.2.64 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 64-70 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Tamás Zonda

Keyword(s):

High Risk ◽

Psychiatric Disorders ◽

Suicide Rate ◽

Risk Groups ◽

The Elderly ◽

Female Ratio ◽

Suicide Notes ◽

Suicidal Intention ◽

Male Female Ratio

The author examined completed suicides occurring over a period of 25 years in a county of Hungary with a traditionally low (relatively speaking) suicide rate of 25.8. The rates are clearly higher in villages than in the towns. The male/female ratio was close to 4:1, among elderly though only 1.5:1. The high risk groups are the elderly, divorced, and widowed. Violent methods are chosen in 66.4% of the cases. The rates are particularly high in the period April-July. Prior communication of suicidal intention was revealed in 16.3% of all cases. Previous attempts had been undertaken by 17%, which in turn means that 83% of suicides were first attempts. In our material 10% the victims left suicide notes. Psychiatric disorders were present in 60.1% of the cases, and severe, multiple somatic illnesses (including malignomas) were present in 8.8%. The majority of the data resemble those found in the literature.

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Analyzing Language in Suicide Notes and Legacy Tokens

Crisis ◽

10.1027/0227-5910/a000363 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 140-147 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Michael J. Egnoto ◽

Darrin J. Griffin

Keyword(s):

Text Analysis ◽

Low Cost ◽

Computer Software ◽

Student Writing ◽

Computer Assisted ◽

Automated Identification ◽

Completed Suicide ◽

Suicide Notes ◽

Self Harm ◽

Harm To Others

Abstract. Background: Identifying precursors that will aid in the discovery of individuals who may harm themselves or others has long been a focus of scholarly research. Aim: This work set out to determine if it is possible to use the legacy tokens of active shooters and notes left from individuals who completed suicide to uncover signals that foreshadow their behavior. Method: A total of 25 suicide notes and 21 legacy tokens were compared with a sample of over 20,000 student writings for a preliminary computer-assisted text analysis to determine what differences can be coded with existing computer software to better identify students who may commit self-harm or harm to others. Results: The results support that text analysis techniques with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) tool are effective for identifying suicidal or homicidal writings as distinct from each other and from a variety of student writings in an automated fashion. Conclusion: Findings indicate support for automated identification of writings that were associated with harm to self, harm to others, and various other student writing products. This work begins to uncover the viability or larger scale, low cost methods of automatic detection for individuals suffering from harmful ideation.

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Can a Theory of Suicide Predict All “Suicides” in the Elderly?

Crisis ◽

10.1027//0227-5910.24.1.7 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 7-16 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Antoon A. Leenaars

Keyword(s):

Sigmund Freud ◽

Terminally Ill ◽

Later Life ◽

Psychological Theory ◽

The Elderly ◽

Theory Building ◽

Personality Factors ◽

Comprehensive Model ◽

Suicide Notes ◽

Psychiatric Study

Summary: Older adults consistently have the highest rates of suicide in most societies. Despite the paucity of studies until recently, research has shown that suicides in later life are best understood as a multidimensional event. An especially neglected area of research is the psychological/psychiatric study of personality factors in the event. This paper outlines one comprehensive model of suicide and then raises the question: Is such a psychiatric/psychological theory applicable to all suicides in the elderly? To address the question, I discuss the case of Sigmund Freud; raise the topic of suicide and/or dignified death in the terminally ill; and examine suicide notes of the both terminally ill and nonterminally ill elderly. I conclude that, indeed, greater study and theory building are needed into the “suicides” of the elderly, including those who are terminally ill.

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A Multidimensional Theory of Suicide

Crisis ◽

10.1027/0227-5910/a000508 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 39 (6) ◽

pp. 416-427 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Antoon A. Leenaars ◽

Gudrun Dieserud ◽

Susanne Wenckstern ◽

Kari Dyregrov ◽

David Lester ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Multidimensional Model ◽

Psychological Autopsy ◽

Suicide Survivors ◽

Background Theory ◽

Independent Verification ◽

Suicide Notes ◽

Interjudge Reliability ◽

The Relationship ◽

Depth Interviews ◽

Deceased People

Abstract. Background: Theory is the foundation of science; this is true in suicidology. Over decades of studies of suicide notes, Leenaars developed a multidimensional model of suicide, with international (crosscultural) studies and independent verification. Aim: To corroborate Leenaars's theory with a psychological autopsy (PA) study, examining age and sex of the decedent, and survivor's relationship to deceased. Method: A PA study in Norway, with 120 survivors/informants was undertaken. Leenaars' theoretical–conceptual (protocol) analysis was undertaken of the survivors' narratives and in-depth interviews combined. Results: Substantial interjudge reliability was noted (κ = .632). Overall, there was considerable confirmatory evidence of Leenaars's intrapsychic and interpersonal factors in suicide survivors' narratives. Differences were found in the age of the decedent, but not in sex, nor in the survivor's closeness of the relationship. Older deceased people were perceived to exhibit more heightened unbearable intrapsychic pain, associated with the suicide. Conclusion: Leenaars's theory has corroborative verification, through the decedents' suicide notes and the survivors' narratives. However, the multidimensional model needs further testing to develop a better evidence-based way of understanding suicide.

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Suicide Attempts During Adolescence: Systematic Hospitalization and Crisis Treatment

Crisis ◽

10.1027//0227-5910.20.1.41 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 41-48 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Jérôme Ottino

Keyword(s):

Attempted Suicide ◽

Suicide Attempts ◽

Psychiatric Treatment ◽

Health Workers ◽

Inpatient Unit ◽

Theoretical Hypothesis ◽

Initial Resistance ◽

Provision Of Care ◽

Suicidal Crisis

This paper deals with an inpatient unit that recently opened in Geneva, specializing in the treatment of patients aged 16-21 years who had attempted suicide or felt the desire to commit suicide. This particular center was established because of the significant weaknesses found in the provision of care to adolescents who had attempted suicide. Despite the growing interest of health workers in this area of study over recent years, the frequency of suicide among the young has not decreased and there are numerous recurrences of the suicide attempts. Further, all efforts to improve the adolescents' compliance with psychiatric treatment have failed to date. The number of drop-outs from treatment is still very high. Thus, the objectives of our inpatient unit are as follows: (1) to overcome initial resistance to treatment and to improve long-term compliance; (2) to decrease the number of recurrent attempts as a consequence of the above, thus increasing life expectancy; (3) to offer the adolescents who have tried (or have contemplated) committing suicide an improved quality of life, after first helping them overcome the suicidal crisis. To achieve these goals, the therapeutic team of the unit proposes short stays during which the work with the adolescents consists of a very intensive psychoanalytic-oriented crisis intervention. Numerous practical aspects of our therapeutic approach in the inpatient unit are related here in detail, always with reference to our theoretical hypothesis.

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