The interface between empirical suicide research and clinical practice

Much remains to be done to improve our clinical capacity for correct suicide risk assessment (in contrast to suicide prediction). The empirically demonstrated facts about increased risk are ready at hand and need to be taught widely to students and trainees. Those that are demonstrated but offend common-sense judgment will require extensive research confirmation before clinicians accept them. The great body of accepted clinical belief, some of which is probably empirically demonstrable and some of which is not, is a fertile field for future empirical study. False clinical beliefs need to be addressed by clinical teachers in all possible educational settings so that they can be eradicated. At the present time, teaching about suicide in the medical schools of the United States would appear to be sadly inadequate.