Alan L Berman

• American Astronomical Society

Myths are widely held and often based on false beliefs. To improve patient safety and speed the translation of research to clinical practice, we highlight and then debunk 10 common myths regarding the assessment, treatment, and management of hospitalized patients at risk for suicide. Myths regarding hospital-based suicides are examined and empirica...

Much has been written about the history of suicide and, notably, about societies that condemned both the act and the actor, resulting in a perpetuation of suicide being stigmatized in many cultures. One aspect of this perceived stigmatization involves exclusionary clauses in life insurance policies that reject paying benefits to survivor-beneficiar...

In this paper we examine the clinical relevance of protective factors to the assessment and formulation of near-term risk of death by suicide. Contrary to current clinical belief and practice we posit that there is no evidence-base to support these factors as mitigating or buffering risk for suicide for the individual patient, especially in the nea...

Suicide rates continue to increase globally. The volume of research in this field has also expanded rapidly. In A Concise Guide to Understanding Suicide, leading researchers and clinicians provide a concise review of recent literature, report solutions achieved and give practical guidance for patient care to aid understanding and help prevent suici...

Suicide and suicidal behaviors are highly associated with psychiatric disorders. Psychiatrists have significant opportunities to identify at-risk individuals and offer treatment to reduce that risk. Although a suicide risk assessment (SRA) is a core competency requirement, many lack the requisite training and skills to appropriately assess for suic...

The main procedure used by clinicians to determine whether an individual may be at risk of suicidal behaviors is the suicide risk assessment (SRA). The purpose of the SRA is to identify risk and protective factors that then provide the data for the formulation of suicide risk. The suicide risk formulation (SRF) assigns a level of suicide risk that...

The suicide risk formulation (SRF) is dependent on the data gathered in the suicide risk assessment. The SRF assigns a level of suicide risk that is intended to inform decisions about triage, treatment, management, and preventive interventions. However, there is little published about how to stratify and formulate suicide risk, what are the criteri...

To the Editor As clinicians and researchers focused on youth suicide, we read with interest the report by Horowitz et al1 on the Ask Suicide-Screening Questions (ASQ). This study examined the psychometric development of a brief suicide screening in the pediatric emergency department. Despite the promising findings, we would like to offer a word of...

The Guide to Community Preventive Services (Guide), one of the most rigorous methods of systematic reviews, was adopted to evaluate the effectiveness of 16 community, primarily youth, suicide prevention interventions, through a multisectoral collaboration. The Guide steps for obtaining and evaluating evidence on effectiveness include: forming a mul...

Shneidman (1973) derived an estimate of six survivors for every suicide that, in the ensuing years, has become an assumed fact underlying public health messaging campaigns in support of suicide prevention and postvention programs worldwide, in spite of it lacking either empirical testing or validation. This report offers a first test designed to de...

Since the publication of the O'Carroll et al. (1996) nomenclature for suicidology, there have been a number of published letters and articles, as well as an active e‐mail dialogue, in response to, and elaborating upon, this effort to establish a standard nomenclature for suicidology. This new nomenclature has been presented on a number of occasions...

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline was launched in January 2005. Lifeline, supported by a federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, consists of a network of more than 120 crisis centers located in communities across the country that are committed to suicide prevention. Lifeline's Certification and Train...

A revised and refined version of the O'Carroll et al. (1996) nomenclature for suicidology is presented, with a focus on suicide‐related ideations, communications, and behaviors. The hope is that this refinement will result in the development of operational definitions and field testing of this nomenclature in clinical and research settings. This re...

In the United States, firearms are involved in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries each year. The magnitude of this problem prompted the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to issue a report in 2004 detailing the strengths and limitations of existing research on the relationship between firearms and violence. In response, a multidisciplinary gr...

The psychological autopsy, as a research, clinical, and forensic tool, has gained widespread usage in suicidology over the last half century. In forensic settings, the lack of standardization and problems determining the procedure's validity and reliability pose significant issues for the procedure's admissibility under the Daubert standard of evid...

The current article addresses the issue of warning signs for suicide, attempting to differentiate the construct from risk factors. In accordance with the characteristic features discussed, a consensus set of warning signs identified by the American Association of Suicidology working group are presented, along with a discussion of relevant clinical...

The issue of suicide warning signs on the Internet is considered. In addition to reviewing some of the relevant conceptual issues about warning signs, a random sample of Internet sites was selected and reviewed. Warning signs were grouped and agreement across sites was examined, with results confirming broad disparity in what is presented to the pu...

In light of concerns about potential iatrogenic effects of information about suicide, in the current study we examined the emotional impact of reading a list of warning signs for suicide in comparison to comparable lists for heart attacks and diabetes. All participants read two sets of warning signs, with the experimental group reading the suicide...

The patient who is at-risk for suicide is complex and is difficult to evaluate and treat effectively. Should suicidal behavior occur, the clinician faces the potential wrath of bereaved survivors and their externalized blame exercised through a malpractice suit. The clinician's duty of care to a patient is to act affirmatively to protect a patient...

The pathology of cardiac disease includes genetic, physical, biochemical, psychological, social, and environmental vectors. Factors contributing to suicide have been identified in these same areas. Survival from an acute cardiac event requires a systematized and multisectoral response. Communities that do not have systematized response capabilities...

The concept of lethality is essential to the assessment of suicide risk; yet operational definitions of lethality for purposes of its measurement have been loose and varied. A number of scaling measures have been published in the literature, with no relative consensus on the best of these. In addition, only a few of these scales have published data...

Older adults are the developmental age group across the lifespan at highest risk for suicide in many Western countries. Given the extent of the problem, the paucity of integrated and sound empirical research in this area is remarkable. Often the literature attributes the death to one or two variables (e.g., illness). However, a lifespan development...

Older adults are the developmental age group across the lifespan at highest risk for suicide in many Western countries. Given the extent of the problem, the paucity of integrated and sound empirical research in this area is remarkable. Often the literature attributes the death to one or two variables (e.g., illness). However, a lifespan development...

This chapter discusses two overriding themes emerge in consideration of the therapeutic process with the suicidal adolescent. First is the core role that attachment plays in both the problem and its resolution. The discussion begins with a focus on the issues posed by the help-seeking-giving-receiving process, describing the suicidal adolescent as...

Addresses policies and procedures as well as issues of liability and malpractice related to working with suicidal outpatients in agency and private practice settings. Issues related to ethical practice with suicidal patients are raised, general recommendations for risk management are discussed, and a step-by-step model for establishing, assessing,...

Typescript. Thesis (Ph. D.--Psychology)--Catholic University of America, 1970. Bibliography: leaves 80-87.