Suicide Glossary of Terms

Access: 1. In general, a means of approaching something. 2. In health care, the opportunity or right to receive health care. 3. In dialysis, the point on the body where a needle or catheter is inserted to gain entry to the bloodstream.

Aggressive: In oncology, quickly growing, tending to spread rapidly. As, for example, an aggressive tumor.

Alcohol: An organic chemical in which one or more hydroxyl (OH) groups are attached to carbon (C) atoms in place of hydrogen (H) atoms. Common alcohols include ethyl alcohol or ethanol (found in alcoholic beverages), methyl alcohol or methanol (can cause blindness) and propyl alcohol or propanol (used as a solvent and antiseptic ). Rubbing alcohol is a mixture of acetone , methyl isobutyl ketone, and ethyl alcohol. In everyday talk, alcohol usually refers to ethanol as, for example, in wine, beer, and liquor. It can cause changes in behavior and be addictive.

Alcohol abuse: Use of alcoholic beverages to excess, either on individual occasions ("binge drinking") or as a regular practice. For some individuals-children or pregnant women, for example-almost any amount of alcohol use may be legally considered "alcohol abuse," depending on local laws. Heavy alcohol abuse can cause physical damage and death.

American Journal of Public Health: A monthly journal that publishes original research articles that are peer-reviewed in both "general and specialized areas of the science, art, and practice of public health . These areas include: environment, maternal and child health , health promotion, epidemiology, administration, occupational health, education, international health, statistics...."

American Medical Association (AMA): The AMA. The AMA's mission statement proclaims:

Anger: An emotional state that may range in intensity from mild irritation to intense fury and rage. Anger has physical effects including raising the heart rate and blood pressure and the levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline.

Angry: Pertaining to anger, an emotional state that may range in intensity from mild irritation to intense fury and rage. Anger has physical effects; it raises the heart rate and blood pressure and the levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline, and so on.

Anhedonia: Loss of the capacity to experience pleasure. The inability to gain pleasure from normally pleasurable experiences. Anhedonia is a core clinical feature of depression , schizophrenia , and some other mental illnesses.

Antidepressant: Anything, and especially a drug, used to prevent or treat depression.

Anxiety: A feeling of apprehension and fear characterized by physical symptoms such as palpitations , sweating, and feelings of stress . Anxiety disorders are serious medical illnesses that affect approximately 19 million American adults. These disorders fill people's lives with overwhelming anxiety and fear. Unlike the relatively mild, brief anxiety caused by a stressful event such as a business presentation or a first date, anxiety disorders are chronic, relentless, and can grow progressively worse if not treated.

Assisted suicide : The deliberate hastening of death by a terminally ill patient with assistance from a doctor, family member, or another individual.

Bereavement: The period after a loss during which grief is experienced and mourning occurs. The time spent in a period of bereavement depends on how attached the person was to the person who died, and how much time was spent anticipating the loss.

Chronic: This important term in medicine comes from the Greek chronos, time and means lasting a long time.

Cognitive: Pertaining to cognition , the process of knowing and, more precisely, the process of being aware, knowing, thinking, learning and judging. The study of cognition touches on the fields of psychology , linguistics, computer science, neuroscience , mathematics, ethology and philosophy.

Comorbidity: The coexistence of two or more disease processes.

Complicated grief: Grief that is complicated by adjustment disorders (especially depressed and anxious mood or disturbed emotions and behavior), major depression , substance abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder are Complicated grief is identified by the extended length of time of the symptoms, the interference in normal function caused by the symptoms, or by the intensity of the symptoms (for example, intense suicidal thoughts or acts).
 

Depression : An illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts, that affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one thinks about things. A depressive disorder is not the same as a passing blue mood. It is not a sign of personal weakness or a condition that can be wished away. People with a depressive disease cannot merely "pull themselves together" and get better. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or years. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people with depression.

Discharge: 1.The flow of fluid from part of the body, such as from the nose or vagina.
2. The passing of an action potential, such as through a nerve or muscle fiber .
3. The release of a patient from a course of care. The doctor may then dictate a discharge summary.

Euthanasia:The word "euthanasia" comes straight out of the Greek -- "eu", goodly or well + "thanatos", death = the good death -- and for 18th-century writers in England that was what euthanasia meant, a "good" death, a welcome way to depart quietly and well from life.

Event: A set of outcomes. Cardiovascular events might include a heart attack and gastrointestinal events a GI bleed. The use of the term "event" in medicine comes from probability theory.

Familial: A condition that is tends to occur more often in family members than expected by chance alone. A familial disease may be genetic (such as cystic fibrosis ) or environmental (such as tuberculosis ).

Family history: The family structure and relationships within the family, including information about diseases in family members.

Food and Drug Administration: The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Public Health Service, which is a part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Grief: The normal process of reacting to a loss. The loss may be physical (such as a death), social (such as divorce), or occupational (such as a job). Emotional reactions of grief can include anger, guilt, anxiety , sadness, and despair. Physical reactions of grief can include sleeping problems, changes in appetite, physical problems, or illness.

Hospital: It may seem unnecessary to define a "hospital" since everyone knows the nature of a hospital. A hospital began as a charitable institution for the needy, aged, infirm, or young.

Impulsivity: Inclined to act on impulse rather than thought. People who are overly impulsive, seem unable to curb their immediate reactions or think before they act. As a result, they may blurt out answers to questions or inappropriate comments, or run into the street without looking. Their impulsivity may make it hard for a child to wait for things they want or to take their turn in games. They may grab a toy from another child or hit when they are upset.

Indicate: In medicine, to make a treatment or procedure advisable because of a particular condition or circumstance. For example, certain medications are indicated for the treatment of hypertension during pregnancy while others are contraindicated.

Insomnia: The perception or complaint of inadequate or poor-quality sleep because of one or more of the following: difficulty falling asleep; waking up frequently during the night with difficulty returning to sleep; waking up too early in the morning; or unrefreshing sleep. Insomnia is not defined by the number of hours of sleep a person gets or how long it takes to fall asleep. Individuals vary normally in their need for, and their satisfaction with, sleep. Insomnia may cause problems during the day, such as tiredness, a lack of energy, difficulty concentrating, and irritability.

Intervention: The act of intervening, interfering or interceding with the intent of modifying the outcome. In medicine, an intervention is usually undertaken to help treat or cure a condition. For example, early intervention may help children with autism to speak. "Acupuncture as a therapeutic intervention is widely practiced in the United States," according to the National Institutes of Health. From the Latin intervenire, to come between.

JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. JAMA began publication in 1883. It now bills itself as "the world's best-read medical journal". However one defines "best-read", JAMA clearly ranks as one of the two leading general medical journals published in the United States. (The other is the New England Journal of Medicine.)

Journal of the American Medical Association: JAMA, which began publication in 1883, now bills itself as "the world's best-read medical journal". However one defines "best-read", JAMA clearly ranks as one of the two leading general medical journals published in the United States. The other is the New England Journal of Medicine.

Lethal: Deadly, fatal, capable of causing death, death-dealing. The word "lethal" comes from the Latin "letum" meaning "death or destruction."

Lithium : Lithium carbonate (brand names: Eskalith; Lithobid), a drug used as a mood stabilizer for the treatment of manic/depressive (bipolar) disorder . It prevents or diminishes the intensity of episodes of mania in bipolar patients. Typical symptoms of mania include pressure of speech, motor hyperactivity, reduced need for sleep , flight of ideas, grandiosity, elation, poor judgment, aggressiveness and possibly hostility.

Manic: Refers to a mood disorder in which a person seems "high", euphoric, expansive, sometimes agitated, hyperexcitable, with flights of ideas and speech.

Medication: 1. A drug or medicine. 2. The administration of a drug or medicine. (Note that "medication" does not have the dangerous double meaning of "drug.")

Mourning: The process by which people adapt to a loss as, for example, the death of someone near and dear. Mourning is influenced by cultural customs, rituals, and society's rules for coping with loss.

Myriad: A great number, a very large number, a huge number of something.

Nursing: 1) Profession concerned with the provision of services essential to the maintenance and restoration of health by attending the needs of sick persons. 2) Feeding a infant at the breast.

Outpatient: A patient who is not an inpatient (not hospitalized) but instead is cared for elsewhere -- as in a doctor's office, clinic, or day surgery center. The term outpatient dates back at least to 1715. Outpatient care today is also called ambulatory care.

Pain: An unpleasant sensation that can range from mild, localized discomfort to agony. Pain has both physical and emotional components. The physical part of pain results from nerve stimulation. Pain may be contained to a discrete area, as in an injury, or it can be more diffuse, as in disorders like fibromyalgia . Pain is mediated by specific nerve fibers that carry the pain impulses to the brain where their conscious appreciation may be modified by many factors.

Pediatrics: "Pediatrics is concerned with the health of infants, children and adolescents, their growth and development, and their opportunity to achieve full potential as adults." (Richard E.Behrman in Nelson's Textbook of Pediatrics)

Physician-assisted suicide : The voluntary termination of one's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician. Physician-assisted suicide is the practice of providing a competent patient with a prescription for medication for the patient to use with the primary intention of ending his or her own life.

Prevalence: The proportion of individuals in a population having a disease. Prevalence is a statistical concept referring to the number of cases of a disease that are present in a particular population at a given time.

Probability: The likelihood that something will happen. For example, a probability of less than .05 indicates that the probability of something occurring by chance alone is less than 5 in 100, or 5 percent. This level of probability is usually taken as the level of biologic significance, so a higher incidence may be considered meaningful. The abbreviation for probability is P.

Psychiatric: Pertaining to or within the purview of psychiatry , the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis , and treatment of mental illness.

Psychiatry: The medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis , and treatment of mental illness.

Psychotherapy: The treatment of a behavior disorder, mental illness, or any other condition by psychological means. Psychotherapy may utilize insight, persuasion, suggestion, reassurance, and instruction so that patients may see themselves and their problems more realistically and have the desire to cope effectively with them.

Public health: The approach to medicine that is concerned with the health of the community as a whole. Public health is community health. It has been said that: "Health care is vital to all of us some of the time, but public health is vital to all of us all of the time."

Qualitative: Having to do with quality. In contrast to quantitative (which pertains to quantity, the amount).

Resistance: Opposition to something, or the ability to withstand it. For example, some forms of staphylococcus are resistant to treatment with antibiotics.

Resolution: In genetics , resolution refers to the degree of molecular detail on a physical map of DNA , ranging from low to high.

Rest: 1. Repose. Relaxation.
2. A fragment of embryonic tissue that has been retained after the period of embryonic development. Also called an embryonic rest.

SAD: Seasonal affective disorder , a form of depression that tends to occur as the days grow shorter in the fall and winter. It is believed that affected persons react adversely to the decreasing amount of light and the colder temperature as autumn and winter progress.

SAMHSA: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a part of the U.S. Public Health Service, that works to improve the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services. Provides funding through block grants to states for direct substance abuse and mental health services, including treatment for over 340,000 Americans with serious substance abuse problems. Helps improve substance abuse treatment through its Knowledge Development and Applications grant program. Monitors prevalence and incidence of substance abuse and mental illness. Established: 1992. (A predecessor agency, the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration, was established in 1974.) Headquarters: Rockville, MD.

Schizophrenia : One of several brain diseases whose symptoms that may include loss of personality (flat affect), agitation, catatonia, confusion, psychosis , unusual behavior, and withdrawal. The illness usually begins in early adulthood.

Stress: Forces from the outside world impinging on the individual. Stress is a normal part of life that can help us learn and grow. Conversely, stress can cause us significant problems.

Substance: 1. Material with particular features, as a pressor substance.
2. The material that makes up an organ or structure. Also known in medicine as the substantia.

Substance abuse: The excessive use of a substance, especially alcohol or a drug. (There is no universally accepted definition of substance abuse.)

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: A part of the U.S. Public Health Service, SAMHSA works to improve the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services. Provides funding through block grants to states for direct substance abuse and mental health services, including treatment for over 340,000 Americans with serious substance abuse problems. Helps improve substance abuse treatment through its Knowledge Development and Applications grant program. Monitors prevalence and incidence of substance abuse and mental illness. Established: 1992. (A predecessor agency, the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration, was established in 1974.) Headquarters: Rockville, MD.

Suicidal: Pertaining to suicide. the taking of ones own life. As in a suicidal gesture, suicidal thought, or suicidal act. An "online lifeline for suicidal undergrads" may help prevent college students from committing suicide.

Suicide prevention: Diminishing the risk of suicide. It may not be possible to eliminate entirely the risk of suicide but it is possible to reduce this risk. For example, the suicide rate among US Air Force personnel fell precipitously after the service launched a community-based suicide prevention program. Suicide should not be viewed solely as a medical or mental health problem, since protective factors such as social support and connectedness appear to play significant roles in the prevention of suicide.

Therapy: The treatment of disease .

Trigger: Something that either sets off a disease in people who are genetically predisposed to developing the disease, or that causes a certain symptom to occur in a person who has a disease. For example, sunlight can trigger rashes in people with lupus.

Youth: The time between childhood and maturity. (Unfortunately, as the songwriter Sammy Cahn noted, "youth is wasted on the young.")

Youth violence: Violence involving young persons, typically children, adolescents, and young adults between the ages of 10 and 24. The young person can be the victim, the perpetrator, or both. Youth violence includes aggressive behaviors such as verbal abuse, bullying, hitting, slapping, or fistfighting. These behaviors have significant consequences but do not generally result in serious injury or death . Youth violence also includes serious violent and delinquent acts such as aggravated assault, robbery, rape , and homicide , committed by and against youth. In addition to causing injury and death, youth violence undermines communities by increasing the cost of health care, reducing productivity, decreasing property values, and disrupting social services.