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Previous Volume 337:910-915 September 25, 1997 Number 13 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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The assessment of suicidal thoughts or behavior and its management are topics relevant to all clinicians, not just mental health professionals. Up to two thirds of patients who commit suicide have seen a physician in the month before their death.^1,2,3,4,5 Many patients who kill themselves do so by taking an overdose of prescribed medications, and physicians sometimes unwittingly provide the means for suicide in a single prescription.³ Few patients spontaneously report their suicidal thoughts and intentions to their physicians,⁴ so the clinician must be alert to signals that a patient may be at risk for suicide. Although the patient may . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Case Examples

Case 1

Case 2

Case 3

Case 4

Epidemiology

Identification and Assessment

Management

Management after a Suicide

A Note about Physician-Assisted Suicide

Conclusions

Source Information

From the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Room 1.200, Graves Bldg., Galveston, TX 77555-0429, where reprint requests should be addressed to Dr. Hirschfeld.

References

Related Letters:

Treatment of Suicidal Patients
Bostwick J. M., Pochard F., Robin M., Kannas S., Simcic K. J., Müller-Oerlinghausen B., Hirschfeld R. M.A., Russell J. M.
Extract | Full Text  
N Engl J Med 1998; 338:261-262, Jan 22, 1998. Correspondence

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