[Detecting the alarm signs of the suicidal crisis]

Suicidal crisis is an escaping moment during which the subject shows a state of vulnerability and a lack of his/her defense abilities, putting him/her in a pain which is not always visible and that does not express itself through a plain nosographic context. Because of that, the practitioner's intervention is made more complicated. In this article, we offer a way to conduct the interview to detect the alarm signs of the suicidal crisis, insisting on the clinical, biographical and environmental elements that are to be looked for. Therefore, the analysis of the suicidal discourse (suicidal ideas expressed or hidden suicidal complaints), the search for risk and protective factors clearly identified, and the interest shown to the personal experiment of the crisis state, will make the evaluation and the determination of suicidal potentialities easier. This is based on the tripod Risk-Emergency-Dangerousness (RED), which will give a direction to the most efficient 24-48 hours care at the conclusion of the interview, whether it were ambulatory (low suicidal potentiality) or requiring an hospitalization (medium or high suicidal potentiality).