Introduction: looking to the future how can research prevent suicide? Stephen H. Koslow, Pedro Ruiz and Charles B. Nemeroff; Part I. Understanding Suicide: 1. Brief history of suicide in Western cultures Leonardo Tondo; 2. Global epidemiology of suicide Pedro Ruiz; 3. Identification and screening of suicide risk Kelly Posner, Kseniya Yershova, Leora Amira, Jacqueline Buchanan , Adam Lesser and Erica Goldstein; 4. Rethinking suicide risk assessment and risk formulation Alan L. Berman and Morton M. Silverman; 5. High risk cognitive states Gregory K. Brown and Kelly Green; 6. Suicide clusters and suicide contagion Alison M. Lake and Madelyn S. Gould; 7. Ethnicity: how much of our understanding of suicide is applicable across ethnic cultures? Donna Holland Barnes, William B. Lawson and Kelsey Bell; 8. Suicide-related bereavement and grief M. Katherine Shear and Sidney Zisook; 9. Statistics Robert D. Gibbons; Part II. Suicidal Comorbidities: 10. Current and chronic signs and symptoms Jan Fawcett; 11. Anxiety, depression and suicide: epidemiology, pathophysiology and prevention Giampaolo Perna and Alan F. Schatzberg; 12. Suicide in schizophrenia Philip D. Harvey and Stacey Espaillat; 13. Personality disorders and suicide Katharine J. Nelson, Michael J. Miller, Alexandra Zagoloff, Melinda K. Westlund and S. Charles Schulz; 14. Suicide and substance use disorders Timothy W. Lineberry and Kathleen T. Brady; 15. Eating disorders and suicide April Smith, Tracy Witte and Scott Crow; 16. Suicidality and epilepsy: a complex relationship Andres M. Kanner; Part III. Special Populations: 17. Suicidal ideation and behavior during pregnancy and the postpartum period Jessica Coker and Zachary N. Stowe; 18. Childhood and adolescence Tina R. Goldstein, Jeffrey A. Bridge and David A. Brent; 19. Indigenous/native populations Deborah Goebert; 20. Bullying and suicidality in youth Anat Brunstein Klomek and Madelyn S. Gould; 21. College students Amanda L. McMillan and Steven J. Garlow; 22. Suicide in older adults Yeates Conwell and Kimberly Van Orden; 23. Armed forces James A. Naifeh, Matthew K. Nock and Robert J. Ursano; 24. Medical illness Gary J. Kennedy and Anne Rohs; 25. Suicide in the criminal justice system Steve Leifman and Tim Coffey; Part IV. Treatment: 26. Reduction of suicidal behavior in bipolar disorder patients during long-term treatment with lithium Leonardo Tondo and Ross J. Baldessarini; 27. Clozapine David Ayer and Herbert Y. Meltzer; 28. Antidepressants Molly Ryan and Charles B. Nemeroff; 29. Suicide and emergency room treatment Collin Davidson, Jennifer H. Olson-Madden, Marian E. Betz and Michael H. Allen; 30. Psychosocial approaches to reduce suicidal behavior Anne C. Ward, Catherine R. Glenn, Matthew K. Nock and Michael W. Otto; Part V. Research: Mediators and Moderators: 31. Genome-wide association studies of suicidal behaviors Marcus Sokolowski, Jerzy Wasserman and Danuta Wasserman; 32. Epigenetics Benoit Labonte and Gustavo Turecki; 33. The use of neuroimaging to investigate the pathophysiology of suicide Christopher R. Bailey, Allison M. Greene and Alexander Neumeister; 34. Brain serotonin in suicides with psychological autopsy Victoria Arango and Helene Bach; 35. The noradrenergic system in depression and suicide Michelle J. Chandley and Gregory A. Ordway; 36. Brain CRF and the HPA axis in suicide Ghanshyam N. Pandey; 37. Receptor signaling in suicide Yogesh Dwivedi; Part VI. Suicide Prevention: 38. Strategies to improve suicide prevention Sarah A. Struthers and Robert M. A. Hirschfeld; 39. Safety planning to prevent suicidal behavior Barbara Stanley, Emily A. Biggs and Gregory K. Brown; 40. Contracting for safety Michael Craig Miller; 41. Suicide and the media Jane Pirkis and R. Warwick Blood; Index.