Special Issue on NEW PERSPECTIVES IN THE STUDY OF SUICIDE RISK: IMPLICATIONS FOR ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT
GUEST EDITORS
Elsa Ronningstam, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, Massachusetts, USA.
Maurizio Pompili, M.D., Ph.D., Full Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Mental Health and Sense Organs (NESMOS), Sant'Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
Annalisa Tanzilli, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
Riccardo Williams, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
Introduction
According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2023), suicide is a leading mental health problem worldwide and the fourth most common cause of death among people aged 15 and 29 years and the second cause of death in the Western Countries in the young age. For many decades, research on this phenomenon has focused on identifying specific risk factors involved in promoting suicidal behavior. In more recent years, an approach has emerged that conceives of suicide as the potential outcome of a complex and articulated process of suicidality including both functions and intentions, which describes the evolution of certain psychological states beginning with a condition of psychache, a condition of unbearable and inescapable emotional triggering the suicidal ideation. In this perspective...