Abstract
During a one-year period in the city of St Louis and surrounding counties, authorities determined that 134 of all deaths registered were suicides. This title is the report of a clinical study that attempts to determine the antecedents of those suicides, using information and observations contributed by the victims’ close associates. Based on a statistical computation of the information collected, the researchers were able to answer a number of previously open questions about suicide. This title includes a set of fully detailed case histories. Presented without interpretation, the allow readers to judge for themselves the clinical development of illness and the validity of diagnoses. In addition, a ‘score card’ for each case illustrates the study team’s step-by-step diagnostic procedure. Of particular interest to mental health workers will be a discussion of predictors of suicide and the process by which diagnoses were assigned.

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