Citation

Krawczyk J, Gmitrowicz A. Psychiatr. Psychol. Klin. 2014; 14(1): 43-49.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Medical Communications)

DOI

10.15557/PiPK.2014.0005

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Suicidal behaviours are a severe problem of the contemporary society and a challenge for people dealing with the development of therapeutic and preventive programmes in suicidology. Many detailed and multi-aspect analyses of functioning of the people at risk of suicide are carried out within scientific research as well as various risk factors of suicidal attempts and committed suicides. Far fewer studies are focussed on the factors protecting against suicide, referred to as buffer or protective factors. For passwords: protective factor, suicide the number of records in the PubMed base amounts to 227, while for risk factor, suicide - 11 299. The objectives of this review of literature comprise: analysis of various factors protecting against suicide and attempt to assess their efficacy. The study involves reports and results of the research presented in English literature. Separately discussed were external and internal protective factors, and a number of publications on their subject were included. Most of research reports refer to preventive role of the family, social support, capability to cope with problems and stress, and self-estimation. An important role is ascribed to perception of causes to live. To a slightly less extent the researchers deal with a protective role of religion, pregnancy, hobby, and involvement in social activities. What has been so far ambiguous and little known is the correlation between sports practice and reduction of suicidal behaviours. The final part of the article presents the results of the studies on the seldom analysed protective factors, such as one's attitude to life and death, fear of death, and sensitivity to pain, the efficacy of which in suicide prevention requires further research. While grouping the protective factors, their usefulness in the creation of supporting systems and preventive programmes was taken into account, passing over those whose efficacy had not been documented. © PSYCHIATR. PSYCHOL.

Language: pl

Keywords

Prevention; human; suicide; Suicide; Review; family; social support; stress; Protective factors; suicide attempt; suicidal behavior; pain; pregnancy; death; leisure; self concept; religion; social behavior; Fear of death; attitude to life; Causes to live