[Epidemiology of suicide].

Epidemiology for suicide cannot give precise numbers: between 440,000 (WHO) and 818,000 persons in the world commit suicide each year. For Europe, suicides increased regularly to a maximum in 1982-84 (median = 17/100,000). Suicide victims tend to be younger. The author doubts that psychiatric causes can explain suicide and be the only factor of importance for prevention. Suicide of adolescents is only the visible tip of a general behavior learned since childhood. The suicidal "solution" (ideas, parasuicides, attempted suicides, and suicides) is probably a social phenomenon. Efficacious prevention requires a global societal approach. Programs of research and prevention in the Netherlands are presented.