Two workshops were convened for the committee on the Pathophysiology and Prevention of Adult and Adolescent Suicide of the Institute of Medicine. Workshop I was on Risk Factors for Suicide and convened on March 14, 2001. Workshop II was on Suicide Prevention and Intervention and convened on May 14, 2001.

The two workshops were designed to allow invited presenters to share with the committee and other workshop participants their particular expertise in suicide, and to discuss and examine the existing knowledge base.

The two workshops were part of the information-gathering activities that inform the work of the committee. It was the committee’s task to assess the science base of suicide etiology, evaluate the current status of suicide prevention, and examine current strategies for the study of suicide. Its full report will includes consensus statements on the scientific literature of the causes of and risk factors for suicide, and illuminates contentious issues and gaps in the knowledge base that should guide prevention efforts and intervention.

This is the summary for Workshop I, Risk Factors for Suicide.

Also see Suicide Prevention and Intervention: Summary of a Workshop and the committee's final report, Reducing Suicide: A National Imperative