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Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffTreatment of suicidal thoughts and behavior depends on your specific situation, including your level of suicide risk and what underlying problems may be causing your suicidal thoughts or behavior.
Emergency situations
If you've made a suicide attempt, you need to go immediately to the emergency room. It's safest to call for an ambulance rather than go with someone else.
At the emergency room, you may need medical treatment for whatever injuries you may have caused yourself. You'll need to have someone with you at all times until it's clearly established that the immediate danger of suicide has passed. The hospital staff will make sure you don't have access to any means of harming yourself by removing any potentially dangerous items from your possession.
The doctor will ask you a number of questions and may want to examine you for any sign of injury, including recent or past signs of suicide attempts. Depending on your state of mind, you may need medications to calm you or to ease symptoms of an underlying mental illness such as depression.
After an initial exam and treatment, your doctor may decide it's safe for you to leave the hospital. However, you may need to stay at the hospital for a while if:
- You've made a suicide attempt
- You seem to be in immediate danger of harming yourself or committing suicide
- You have uncontrolled symptoms of an underlying mental illness that might put you in danger
- You're detached from reality (psychotic)
- You're intoxicated
- You have a history of drug or alcohol abuse
- You don't have supportive family or friends who can make sure you're safe and that you're getting the help you need
- You're acting impulsively or recklessly
Your doctor may want you to stay in the hospital long enough to make sure any treatments are working, that you'll be safe when you leave and that you'll get the follow-up treatment you need.
Nonemergency situations
If you have suicidal thoughts but aren't in a crisis situation, you may need outpatient treatment. This treatment may include:
- Psychotherapy. In psychotherapy, also called counseling or talk therapy, you explore the issues that make you feel suicidal. You and your therapist can work together to develop treatment plans and goals. If you were already in therapy, you and your mental health provider may meet more frequently until your thoughts of suicide are better managed.
- Medications. Antidepressants, antipsychotic medications, anti-anxiety medications and other medications for mental illness can help reduce symptoms, which can help you feel less suicidal.
- Addiction treatment. Alcohol and substance abuse can worsen thoughts of suicide and make you feel impulsive enough to act on your thoughts. Treatment for drug or alcohol addiction can include detoxification, addiction treatment programs and self-help group meetings.
- Family support and education. Your loved ones can be both a source of support and conflict. Involving them in treatment can help them understand what you're going through, give them better coping skills, and improve family communication and relationships.
Helping a loved one with suicidal thoughts
If you have a loved one who has harmed himself or herself, or if you think he or she may be in danger of doing so, get emergency help. If you have a loved one you think may be considering suicide, have an open and honest discussion about your concerns. You may not be able to force someone to seek professional care, but you can offer encouragement and support. You can also help your loved one find a qualified doctor or mental health provider and make an appointment. You may even be able to go to an appointment with him or her.
- Schreiber J, et al. Suicidal ideation and behavior in adults. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Feb. 9, 2010.
- Kennebeck S, et al. Evaluation and management of suicidal behavior in children and adolescents. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Feb. 9, 2010.
- Barbara Woodward Lips Patient Education Center. Understanding attempted suicide. Rochester, Minn.: Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research; 2005.
- Understanding suicide fact sheet. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/suicide_factsheet2008.pdf. Accessed Feb. 2, 2010.
- Logan J, et al. Characteristics of perpetrators in homicide-followed-by-suicide incidents: National Violent Death Reporting System - 17 US States, 2003-2005. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2008;169:9.
- The risk factors for suicide. American Association of Suicidology. http://www.suicidology.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=232&name=DLFE-186.doc. Accessed Feb. 2, 2010.
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