September 10th, 2009, is World Suicide Prevention Day, organized by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO).
Every year many millions of people make serious suicide attempts which, while they do not result in death, require medical treatment and mental health care, and reflect severe personal unhappiness or illness. Millions more people – the family members and close friends of those who die by suicide  are bereaved and affected by suicide each year, with the impact of this loss often lasting a lifetime.
Suicide exacts  huge psychological and social costs. Because almost a quarter of suicides are teenagers and young adults aged less than 25 years ( 250,000 suicides a year) suicide is a leading cause of premature death, accounting for more than 20 million years pf healthy life lost. link to read more about World Suicide Prevention Day activities from around the world

Genetic Indicators of Suicide from uabnews on Vimeo.

Every 16 minutes, an American commits suicide. It’s the 11th leading cause of death in this country, a fact being widely noted during National Suicide Prevention Week Sept. 6-12. And now researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) are looking deep inside the brain for ways to determine the reasons people commit suicide – and identify those most likely to attempt it. ….read full article
Source: University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)