Commentary paper: Tony Salvatore (2014)

Anyone who turns to the suicide prevention literature for insight on the topic of suicide and mental illness will quickly encounter this statement in some form: Ninety percent of suicide victims had a psychiatric disorder (Goldsmith et al., 2002; Litts et al., 2008; American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 2014)

The implication of this contention is almost causal in nature.

In this commentary, Tony Salvatore questions this statement and gives us an insight as to why the 90% statistic still looms large today.