Later-life suicide is a tragedy that occurs worldwide. Often it is preventa
ble. Here, the authors summarize an international workshop where they revie
w four research approaches to studying putative risk factors: epidemiologic
studies of suicidal behaviours, clinic-based follow-up studies, studies of
suicide attempters, and psychological autopsy studies. They provide brief
descriptions of the approaches, examples of questions best addressed by eac
h approach, and their weakness and limitations; they also recommend promisi
ng areas for the future research and propose opportunities for research tha
t could be conducted cross-nationally.