WHO Research and Intervention Projects Into Suicidal Behaviours: The WHO/SUPRE-MISS and the WHO/START Studies

Abstract

Historically, suicide prevention efforts in a structured form date more than one century back. This paper mentions a few milestones in the internationalisation of anti-suicide strategies, emphasizing the role of both the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and the International Academy for Suicide Research (IASR). The core of the discussion, however, is the relatively recent involvement of the United Nations, particularly through their ad hoc branch, the World Health Organization (WHO), in the fight against suicidal behaviours. A brief description is dedicated to the important WHOIEURO Multi-centre Study on Suicidal Behaviour and to its 15 years of formal existence. Its impact was markedly influential in many European environments and in the growth of a generation of scholars. The ecological approach of WHO to suicide phenomena is probably better reflected in subsequent studies, the SUPRE¬MISS and the START, the former spread around five continents, the latter mainly located in the Western Pacific Region of WHO. Brief history and main characteristics of these projects are here commented.