O'Carroll P
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Public Health Service, Atlanta, GA 30333.
Suicide Life Threat Behav. 1993 Spring;23(1):27-36.
Most people readily agree that suicide is caused by a complex web of many different factors. However, for many people the concept of a single event resulting from the combined effect of a constellation of different factors (multiple causation) is imperfectly understood. Unfortunately, a naive understanding of multiple causation can lead to needless arguments about what "really" causes suicide, and pointless debate about the "right" point for preventive intervention. In this paper, I review several simple conceptual models of multiple causation as they relate to suicide prevention. I suggest that a more explicit understanding of the nature of multiple causation has the potential to obviate some of these misguided arguments and to facilitate cooperative prevention efforts among person who choose to apply their energies at different points in the causal chain of suicide.
大多数人都欣然认同，自杀是由诸多不同因素构成的复杂网络所致。然而，对许多人而言，由一系列不同因素共同作用导致单一事件的概念（多重因果关系）并未得到充分理解。不幸的是，对多重因果关系的简单理解可能会引发关于自杀“真正”原因的不必要争论，以及关于预防干预“正确”切入点的无意义辩论。在本文中，我回顾了几种与自杀预防相关的多重因果关系的简单概念模型。我认为，对多重因果关系本质有更明确的理解，有可能避免一些此类误导性争论，并促进那些选择在自杀因果链不同点投入精力的人之间的合作预防努力。
