Suicide Prevention: Meeting the Challenge Together Lakshmi Vijayakumar (ed) Hyderabad, India: Orient Longman, 2003, £16.95 pb, 241 pp. ISBN: 81-250-2553-7

In recent years, strategies for suicide prevention have revolved around two main concepts, with approaches to high-risk groups and to whole populations. Since 1999 the World Health Organization has established a worldwide initiative for the prevention of suicide (SUFRE). The Department of Health set a series of targets to reduce the suicide rate; these coincided with the start of the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness. The National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England was published in 2002 and appeared to acknowledge that strategies on suicide prevention should be based on a whole community effort, although mental health services should continue with their leading role. Suicide prevention efforts usually attract some criticism from anti-psychiatry groups.

This book presents a selection from the papers presented at the XXI Congress of the International Association for Suicide Prevention held at Chennai, India. It covers a wide area of suicide research and prevention but there also is a lot of repetition, a lack of cohesiveness and a lack of background information. Some chapters were written by well-known researchers. Kees Van Heeringen offers one of the most comprehensive and interesting reviews on the psychobiological model of predisposition to suicide. Venkoba Rao gives a much needed insight into some of the cultural and philosophical perspectives of suicide in India, and Keith Hawton and Dinesh Bhugra shed light on the UK experience. Grad et al give a rare review of different approaches to suicide bereavement in four western countries and provide useful recommendations. The book provides an enlightening mix of international views and Asian experiences from India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, China and Korea. However, the titles of some of the chapters do not accurately reflect their contents or objectives.

This book is an addition to the knowledge on global suicide and should improve our understanding of suicide prevention. It could be recommended to those who are interested in suicide research and developing local suicide prevention strategies. I hope it will inspire those who read it to become involved in a local programme or research project aimed at preventing suicide.