Suicide: a guide to risk factors, assessment, and treatment of suicidal patients.

This article summarizes what is known about risk factors for suicide in both adolescent and adult populations. It also translates this knowledge base into practical considerations for the physician on the assessment and treatment of suicidal patients. Since most patients who commit suicide have seen a physician in the weeks to month prior to their deaths, and many kill themselves with medications prescribed by their doctors, the physician's early detection and treatment of suicidal behaviors and associated psychiatric disorders in his or her patients becomes a major suicide prevention strategy.