The causation of suicide is complex and multifaceted;
a broad bio-psycho-social understanding is
required. In this report, the importance of
psychiatric illness as an underlying factor in the
majority of suicides is taken as given. But while an
underlying factor in most suicides is psychiatric
illness, most people with psychiatric illness do not
take their lives. In order to explain the elevated risk
among men in their mid-years of lower socioeconomic
position, the key challenge is to identify
non-psychiatric factors that interact with
psychiatric vulnerability. This report explores the
increased risk of suicide in this socio-demographic
group from a variety of perspectives, and connects
death by suicide to the wider experiences of this
group of men in society during the present
historical period. This approach also emerges from
critiques of the failure of suicide research and
prevention to address suicide as a social issue, as
follows. d-life