Prevention, assessment and treatment of suicidal behavior

Abstract

Suicide is a serious global public health problem in both developed and developing countries. The results of the research reviewed here reveal that, in Europe, one person dies by suicide every nine minutes, and that in Spain it is currently the leading external cause of death after road traffic accidents. This review presents the latest findings on effective suicide prevention strategies in the general population as well as the most appropriate instruments for assessing the level of risk for suicidal behavior in a clinical population. The treatments that scientific literature reports to be most effective in the fight against suicide are also included. The most significant results in terms of both prevention and treatment are discussed and several limitations to this study are also raised, which may be considered for future work by practitioners and researchers interested in this field.