Citation

Millner AJ, Lee MD, Nock MK. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 2016; 47(3): 353-369.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, American Association of Suicidology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/sltb.12284

PMID

27477787

Abstract

To die by suicide, one must think about suicide, make a plan, and then carry it out. Prior research has examined the presence and predictors of these outcomes; however, virtually no studies have characterized how these steps unfold along the pathway to suicide. A novel instrument was administered to 30 recent suicide attempters.

RESULTS revealed that although the median onset for suicidal ideation occurs 1 to 5 years prior to attempting, the median for 6 of the 10 steps measured was within 6 hours of attempting. Overall, 86.5% of proximal planning steps took place within 1 week of attempting and 66.6% occurred within 12 hours.

© 2016 The American Association of Suicidology.

Language: en