Classification of suicidal behavior: a review and step toward integration.
The many forms of suicidal phenomena, including contemplated, attempted, and completed suicide, present significant problems to both researchers and practitioners. Although many attempts have been made to develop categories, agreement among the proposed systems has been more the exception than the rule. This article reviews theoretical and empirical efforts to define types of suicidal individuals and attempts to integrate them by means of higher-order categories of variables. These categories or "dimensions" are as follows: (1) descriptive, (2) situational, (3) psychological/behavioral, and (4) teleological. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Ellis
T E
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Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, West Virginia, University Health Sciences Center, Charleston 25326.
D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009042:Motivation; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology*