Related topics: mental health
Suicide
hideSuicide (Latin suicidium, from sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the intentional taking of one's own life. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest" (e.g., "political suicide"). Suicide may occur for a number of reasons, including depression, shame, guilt, desperation, physical pain, emotional pressure, anxiety, financial difficulties, or other undesirable situations. The World Health Organization noted that over one million people commit suicide every year, and that it is one of the leading causes of death among teenagers and adults under 35. There are an estimated 10 to 20 million non-fatal attempted suicides every year worldwide.
Views on suicide have been influenced by cultural views on existential themes such as religion, honor, and the meaning of life. The Abrahamic religions consider suicide an offense towards God due to religious belief in the sanctity of life. In the West it was often regarded as a serious crime. Japanese views on honor and religion led to seppuku, one of the most painful methods of suicide, to be respected as a means to atone for mistakes or failure, or as a form of protest during the samurai era. In the 20th century, suicide in the form of self-immolation has been used as a form of protest, and in the form of kamikaze and suicide bombing as a military or terrorist tactic. Sati is a Hindu funeral practice in which the widow would immolate herself on her husband's funeral pyre, either willingly, or under pressure from the family and in-laws.
Medically assisted suicide (euthanasia, or the right to die) is currently a controversial ethical issue involving people who are terminally ill, in extreme pain, and/or have minimal quality of life through injury or illness. Self-sacrifice for others is not usually considered suicide, as the goal is not to kill oneself but to save another.
The predominant view of modern medicine is that suicide is a mental health concern, associated with psychological factors such as the difficulty of coping with depression, inescapable suffering or fear, or other mental disorders and pressures. A suicide attempt is sometimes interpreted as a "cry for help" and attention, or to express despair and the wish to escape, rather than a genuine intent to die. Most people who attempt suicide do not complete suicide on a first attempt; those who later gain a history of repetitions have a significantly higher probability of eventual completion of suicide.
For more information about Suicide, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with suicide
New cancer study takes major step toward improved treatment
Dec 01, 2009 |
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Cancer researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center have found a way to turn ineffective new cancer drugs into cancer-fighters. By using their patented chemical compound, SHetA2, researchers tricked cancer ...
Physician-assisted suicide: A perspective from advocates for people with disability
Dec 23, 2009 |
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Although public opinion in the United States on physician-assisted suicide is evenly divided, about half of states have either defeated bills to legalize assisted suicide or have passed laws explicitly banning it and only ...
'Anti-social network' aims to be Facebook killer app
Dec 10, 2009 |
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Facebook makes you despair? Social networking makes you want to end it all? You may be ready for online ritual suicide with the aid of a new website that helps you kill your virtual identity.
Search results for suicide
Cardiovascular and suicide risk raised after prostate cancer diagnosis
Dec 15, 2009 |
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Men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer have an increased risk of cardiovascular events and suicide, reports a new study in this week's PLoS Medicine. Katja Falland Fang Fang from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden ...
Antiepileptic drugs not linked to suicide among those with bipolar disorder
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Dec 07, 2009 |
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Despite government warnings about an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and actions while taking antiepileptic drugs, these medications do not appear to be associated with increased risk of suicide attempts in individuals ...
Researchers design a tool to induce controlled suicide in human cells
Dec 17, 2009 |
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When cells accumulate excessive errors in the proteins they produce, apoptosis is activated, that is to say, a cell suicide programme; however, beforehand the cells attempt to rectify the problem through a number of rescue ...
Antidepressants cut risk of hospital readmission for suicidal youth
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Dec 17, 2009 |
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Suicidal adolescents who were prescribed an antidepressant medication during inpatient psychiatric hospital treatment were 85 percent less likely than others to be readmitted within a month after discharge, a new study found.
Why cancer cells just won't die (w/ Video)
Dec 09, 2009 |
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When cells experience DNA damage, they'll try to repair it. But if that fails, the damaged cells are supposed to self-destruct, a process called apoptosis. A cancer researcher at Robarts Research Institute at The University ...
A reductionist approach to HIV research
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Nov 30, 2009 |
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A major obstacle to HIV research is the virus's exquisite specialisation for its human host - meaning that scientists' traditional tools, like the humble lab mouse, can deliver only limited information. Now, a team of researchers ...
Is it right for drug companies to carry out their own clinical trials?
Nov 30, 2009 |
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In BMJ today two experts debate whether the conflict of interest is unacceptable when drug companies carry out clinical trials on their own medicines.
Deaths related to narcotic pain relievers have doubled since 1991: Study
Dec 07, 2009 |
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Deaths from opioid use in Ontario have doubled -- from 13.7 deaths per million residents in 1991 to 27.2 deaths per million residents in 2004 -- according to a new study led by physicians at St. Michael's Hospital and the ...
Major impacts of climate change expected on mental health
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Dec 03, 2009 |
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Leading mental health researchers are warning that some of the most important health consequences of climate change will be on mental health, yet this issue is unlikely to be given much attention at the UN climate change ...
DNA of Jesus-era shrouded man in Jerusalem reveals earliest case of leprosy
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Dec 16, 2009 |
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The DNA of a 1st century shrouded man found in a tomb on the edge of the Old City of Jerusalem has revealed the earliest proven case of leprosy. Details of the research will be published December 16 in the ...
List of search results for suicide
