Suicidal thoughts are common enough. At times of great stress, many people have had fleeting thoughts of suicide.  Each year in United states some 500,000 people are treated in hospital emergency rooms for attempted suicide, and more than 33,000 “succeed” in taking their lives.

U.S. Surgeon General’s report on suicide: 

• Every 17 minutes another life is lost to suicide. Every day, nearly 100 Americans take their own lives and over 1,500 attempt suicide.

• Suicide is now the 8th leading cause of death in Americans.

• For every two victims of homicide in the United States, there are three death from suicide.

• There are now twice as many deaths due to suicide than due to HIV/AIDS.

• Between 1952 and 1995, the incidence of suicide among adolescents and young adults nearly tripled.

• In the month prior to their suicide, 75% of elderly persons had visited a physician.

• Over half of all suicide occur in adult men, ages 25-65.

• Men are 4 times more likely to commit suicide than are women.

• More teenagers and  young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia and influenza, and chronic lung disease combined.

• Suicide takes  the lives of more than 30,000 Americans every year.

Suicidal behavior is not a psychological disorder in itself. But it is often a feature or symptom of an underlying psychological disorder, usually a mood disorder. Not surprisingly, suicide attempts are more likely in people with major depression during a major depressive episode. Estimates are that about 60% or people who commit suicide suffer from a mood disorder.