Suicide Data Bank
In 2006, AFSP completed its Suicide Data Bank project. In this initiative, AFSP investigators collaborated with therapists who had lost a patient to suicide to examine the course of the patients’ treatment, the events leading up to the suicide and the patients' emotional state prior to their death. The project also examined the reactions of the therapists to the suicides.
Detailed information was collected from 36 therapists, using a combination of questionnaires, narrative case reports and face-to-face meetings with the investigators. Between 2000 and 2006, findings from the research were published in a series of papers that collectively provide important new information to help clinicians recognize and effectively respond to a suicide crisis, as well as new insight into the challenges of treating seriously suicidal patients. Two of these papers focused on the impact of a patient suicide on the treating clinicians.
Click below to access the Suicide Data Bank papers:
The Suicide Data Bank project was supported by grants from the Mental Illness Foundation and Janssen Pharmaceutica Inc.
