Why There Is a Need for an International Nomenclature and Classification System for Suicide

The Status Quo: There is no internationally agreed-upon set of terms, definitions, or classifications for the range of thoughts, communications, and behaviors that are related to self-injurious behaviors, with or without the intent to die. Nor is there an agreed taxonomy that encompasses the full spectrum of what are often clinically defined as suicide-related behaviors. The suicide literature remains replete with confusing (and sometimes pejorative) terms, definitions, descriptors, and classifications that make it difficult, if not impossible, to compare and contrast different research studies, clinical reports, or epidemiological surveys, or to make generalizations or extrapolations. The relative rarity of suicide phenomena, especially fatal events, would make particularly desirable the aggregation of data from different research groups. This would allow for performing meta-analytic evaluations and make parsimonious use of the small amount of money dedicated to suicide research worldwide.