100 The European Psychiatric Association Section on Suicidology and Suicide Prevention

European scholars historically pioneered research on suicide. Attitudes towards suicide dramatically changed during nineteenth and twentieth centuries, mainly due to the recognition of psychiatry as an autonomous discipline, which allowed treatment for disorders causing suicide, such as ‘melancholy’ or ‘hysteria’, for instance, and thanks to the original contribution of illustrious scientists such as Enrico Morselli (1882) and Emile Durkheim (1897/1951). As Durkheim, in his work, regarded suicide as a social illness reflecting alienation, anomy and other side-effects of modern times, Morselli, in his earlier moral statistics comparative essay, had already stressed the influence of biological, individual, and social factors on the development of suicide, and emphasized the importance of treatment, and the role of psychic suffering in suicidal persons.

As the study of suicidal behaviours in the twenty-first century has been engaging with the novel impulse of the biological trajectory of causation, taking advantage of new perspectives which stem from recent advances in scientific technology, European psychiatrists still achieve notable results: European contribution to scientific knowledge on suicide parallels with the huge commitment in the field by North America and the recent involvement of nations from other continents. With the aim of highlighting European contribution to this specific area of psychiatry, providing cohesion and coordinating individual European researchers, a new Section on Suicide and Suicide Prevention within the European Psychiatric Association (EPA), previously known as the Association of European Psychiatrists (AEP), was conceived and established by the General Assembly during the Annual Congress held in March 2006 in Nice.

The EPA Section on Suicidology's goal is to adhere to the highest scientific standards in order to keep pace with advances of scientific knowledge in psychiatry applied to suicidology. The original impulse for the creation of an EPA Section on Suicidology was to give a logistic frame and reference to the scientific activity of European psychiatrists, with the intent of conferring stability and prestige to the work of each member. It was, therefore, significant that scientists sharing a clear common historical, cultural and methodological matrix could merge their competences in such an association, joining their forces at a time when advances in scientific technology require enhanced means and huge numbers of patients to study.

In 2007, during the Section Meeting held within the XV European Congress of Psychiatry in Madrid, Section members reformulated the objectives of the Section's establishment, and decided that a part of the Section's work should be addressed to the prevention of suicide, as an essential duty of the psychiatrist working in the field of suicidology. For this reason, the title of Section was changed into ‘EPA Section on Suicidology and Suicide Prevention’. Specific tasks of the Section would then be to increase awareness and early recognition of problems leading to suicidal risk, to develop specific guidelines for the treatment of suicidal patients, and to organize educational events and specialist courses for psychiatrists.

The Section has an Executive Board: Danuta Wasserman (Sweden), Chair, Marco Sarchiapone (Italy), Co-Chair, Dan Rujescu (Germany), Secretary General, and Vladimir Carli, (Italy) Treasurer. The development of the section can be followed by visiting http://www.aep.lu/

Basic scientific activity of the Section is the organization of the Section's symposia at the EPA's Congresses.

Symposia were organized at the EPA Congresses: in March 2007 in Madrid, in April 2008 in Nice, and in January 2009 in Lisbon, as well as at other meetings: in September 2006 in Portoroz, Slovenia, within the fifth International Meeting on ‘Suicide: Interplay between Genes and Environment’.

As suicide research and prevention are a founding basis of the suicidologist's and Section member's identity, the Section specifically addresses the promotion of joint research and also intends to encourage the sharing of expertise and data among its researchers: one way of realizing this objective will be to implement the standardization of research methodology.

An example of joint European research is the SEYLE project (Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe) run by the consortium of twelve European Countries: Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, with Sweden as a coordinator. The main objectives of this project, funded by the European Commission, are to promote health of adolescents through decreased risk taking and suicidal behaviours, to evaluate outcomes of professionally, gate-keeper and student-guided preventive interventions and to recommend effective culturally adjusted models for promoting health of adolescents in different European countries. Data on lifestyles and values of European adolescents are also gathered.

Attention to clinical activity is guaranteed by giving training courses in collaboration with local university centres, and Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses during the EPA Congresses on ‘Prevention and treatment of suicidal behaviours’. Currently, the initiative of the Section is the organization of an International collaboration of PhD training in Suicidology, a proposal by late Professor Andrej Marušič, from University of Primorska, Portoroz, Solvenia to be held in two or three European universities, with faculty members recruited among the Section's members.

The development of the Section can be followed by visiting http://www.epa.lu.