Citation

Pridmore S, Jamil MY. Australas. Psychiatry 2009; 17(6): 466-471.

Affiliation

Professor of Mental Health, Centre for Remote Health, A joint centre of Flinders University and Charles Darwin University, Alice Springs, NT, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1080/10398560903281824

PMID

20001368

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this paper is to present two models of separate but related aspects of suicide, developed with a view to improving understanding and management of this behaviour. Conclusions: First, the predicament model of suicide posits that all suicide represents an escape from a predicament and associated distress. Predicaments are composed of either external (environmental) or internal (mental disorders) factors, or both. Suicide occurs when a threshold is exceeded on a suicide risk ladder, and the degree of movement toward the threshold in response to a particular stressor depends on a range of factors. Second, the suicide pathways model integrates medical and sociological concepts, with distress as the central component, and three run-offs: mental disorder, medicalized and a non-mental disorder (egoistic/anomic; reaction) suicide.

Language: en