Are we able to evaluate suicide risk?

Suicide is not only a medical but also a social problem. It seems important to be able to evaluate the risk of suicide in ordertointroduce appropriate preventive actions.Several instruments (scales) for the evaluation of the suicide risk may be of a help to the physician, however, they do not allow for a more precise measurement of such a risk. For the evaluation of suicide risk the following factors seemto play important role:severe depressive symptoms coexisting with substance abuse, feeling that there is no escape (entrapment), more arguments for suicide that against it, earlier suicidal thoughts / tendencies / attempts, active preparations for a suicide.