Employing an innovative approach to studying suicide attempters who either used a highly lethal method or would have died without medical help, CDC researchers have identified several non-traditional health risk factors that have rarely been included in suicide research. These non-traditional health associated risk factors include: acute alcohol use, changing residences, existing medical conditions, and characteristics of impulsive suicide behavior. The findings are published in a special supplement to the spring edition of Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior (SLTB). SLTB is the official Journal of the American Association of Suicidology.

Download the Accessible PDF Files

The supplement is available in four separate PDF files.  These files require Adobe Acrobat and are accessible by text readers with Acrobat 5.0.

  PDF File One - Introduction and Articles

• Suicide Prevention Broadening the Field Toward a Public Health Approach
• Interviewing Suicide "Decedents":  A Fourth Strategy for Risk Factor Assessment
• An Unmatched Case-Control Study of Nearly Lethal Suicide Attempts in Houston, Texas:  Research Methods and Measurements
• Factors Associated with the Medical Severity of Suicide Attempts in Youths and Young Adults
• Alcohol Consumption and Nearly Lethal Suicide Attempts in Youths and Young Adults
• The Influence of Geographic Mobility on Nearly Lethal Suicide Attempts

  PDF File Two - More Articles

• Characteristics of Impulsive Suicide Attempts and Attempters
• Medical Conditions and Nearly Lethal Suicide Attempts
• Help-Seeking Behavior Prior to Nearly Lethal Suicide Attempts

  PDF File Three - Critique  
Studying Survivors of Nearly Lethal Suicide Attempts:  An Important Strategy in Suicide Research

  PDF File Four - Postscript