Suicidal Behavior: A Separate Diagnosis

In this video, Dr Maria Oquendo discusses the perception of suicidal behavior and proposes a separate diagnosis: Thinking about suicidal behavior as a diagnosable problem will help bridge the gap in how psychiatrists think about suicidality and how it is perceived by patients and their families.

Dr Oquendo is Professor and Vice-Chair in Psychiatry at Columbia University and the NY State Psychiatric Institute. Her NIMH funding is to study suicidal behavior in affective disorders and for translational neuroscience research training in the psychiatry residency. She was recently awarded a T32 grant for a research fellowship program in Global Mental Health. She’s received numerous awards, including Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (1993, 2002), Simon Bolivar Award (2010), and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Research Award (2013). She was named Honorary Professor, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru (2011). As a featured speaker at this year’s American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco, she is scheduled to present her lecture on Tuesday, May 21, at 11 AM.