The dictionary definition states that suicide is “the act of killing oneself or attempting to kill oneself.”

Legally, suicide has been defined as, “the act of malicious self-murder, felo de se.”

Suicidology combines knowledge and the methods of inquiry from several fields such as psychology, psychiatry, physiology and sociology for the research, treatment and prevention of suicide. Naturally, suicidologists have their own definition of suicide.

A suicidological definition of suicide is concerned mostly with the causes of suicide, and not much by which instances of death qualify as a suicide.

Edwin Shneidman, a central figure in the field of Suicidology, gave a very detailed definition: “currently in the Western world, suicide is a conscious act of self-induced annihilation, best understood as a multidimensional malaise in the needful individual who defines an issue for which the suicide is perceived as the best solution.”

Shneidman noted that this definition is dependent upon time and culture. He is opposed to the use of the terms ‘suicidal attempt’ or ‘suicidal threat�

Males commit suicide more often than females in most parts of the world, but females attempt suicide at least three times as often. This is because men use more violent methods, such as guns and hanging while females tend to rely on less violent options, such as drug overdose. This high incidence may also reflect the fact that more women than men are depressed, and that depression is strongly related to suicide. But depression by itself is seldom sufficient. Other coexisting disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, substance abuse or anxiety can increase the likelihood of suicide. Recent stressful events can also trigger suicidal behaviour, especially in impulsive young people.

Dr. Mann and Malone used Positron Emission Tomography (PET), a new brain imaging technique that can visualize regional brain metabolic activity to capture a direct image of normal brain response to serotonin in live, normal subjects and to compare it with the visualization of regional serotonin responses in depressed and suicidal patients. They found that serotonin release increased brain metabolic activity in the same region of the prefrontal cortex that Dr. Aranga found to be abnormal. This procedure was the first report of imaging regional responses in a live human brain.

· Boredom, restlessness, fatigue, concentration problems.

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