PULSE UNDERSTANDING SUICIDE.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students. That's why Kay Redfield Jamison, best-selling author, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and suicide survivor, regularly speaks on college campuses.

It is this compelling mix of personal experience and professional knowledge that Jamison will bring to the podium at UCLA on Tuesday.

Her opinion, backed by 15 years studying mental illness and suicide, is that the ``very effectiveness of our medications'' has allowed a much greater number of adolescents with psychiatric illnesses to function well enough to attain college status. The problem of dealing with these special needs then creates student health facilities that are overwhelmed by students requiring treatment for depression, manic-depression, alcohol or other substance abuse and schizophrenia.

``Suicide has an aura of idiosyncrasy about it,'' Jamison said. ``But suicide is not an indecipherable individual choice; instead it is a public health problem on its way to epidemic stature.''

She is attempting to remove the silence and shame shrouding not only suicide, but also the psychiatric illnesses which nearly always accompany it. In her latest book, ``Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide,'' (Vintage; $14) Jamison makes it clear that these are treatable illnesses.

Going public with her own experience is not new for Jamison. In 1995, ``An Unquiet Mind,'' a memoir of her struggles with manic-depression was released. It was a critical and commercial success and is now in development as a feature film.

Jamison's lecture and book signing begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Grand Rounds at UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, Louis Jolyon West Auditorium, Room C8-183, off Westwood Boulevard.

-Maria L. Reyes

UPDATE

ON THE RUN WITH ERIC - Third in a series

TO THE LIMIT: With less than two months before marathon day in Hawaii, the tally sheet for AAA insurance agent Eric Heilbrun looks something like this:

--One 16-mile run under his belt, his longest distance so far.

--$2,000 raised toward a $3,100 goal, with all money going to the Arthritis Foundation. Heilbrun is training and running with the foundation's Joints in Motion team, which pays for lodgings and accommodations as long as team members meet their fund-raising goals.

--And one lingering and very pesky cold.

``The group ran 18 miles on (Oct. 7), but I found reasons to run only 12,'' says Heilbrun. ``The weekend before that, when we did our 16-mile run, I wasn't feeling well. So I went out and ran 16 miles with a cold. I did it, but it was tough, and it killed me.''

But Heilbrun isn't complaining. He says he's still on schedule both in training and fund-raising, and expects to be ready for the Honolulu Marathon Dec. 10.

``Our next real long run will let me know where I stand,'' he says. ``The group is supposed to do 12 miles, but I may go 14 to 16, to make up for last week. I'll see.''

- Evan Henerson

PREVENTION

END TO ABUSE: Violence. It's in the home, on the school yard and at the prom.

According to a Kaiser Permanente poll, 40 percent of teen-age girls 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend, while another poll by the City of New York reports that 80 percent of abused teens continue to date the abuser.

To commemorate National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Liz Claiborne is offering a free handbook, ``A Teen's Handbook: What You Need to Know About Dating Violence,'' through the Women's Work order line this month at [phone], as well as selling related products at all Liz Claiborne and Elisabeth stores. To encourage discussion and help create a society intolerant of relationship violence, the stores are offering a trio of leather bangle bracelets with a sterling silver bar inscribed with the message ``Love is not abuse'' for $10, and also long-sleeved white cotton T-shirts for $12.

-Barbara De Witt

FUND-RAISER

CONTROLLING LUPUS: Former valley girl Marcia Urbin Raymond is one of 2 million Americans with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (also known simply as lupus), a chronic autoimmune disease, and now that she's gotten it under control, she's on a mission to help others.

As she travels across the country this month (October is Lupus Awareness Month) interviewing lupus patients and recording their stories for her second documentary, ``For Life: More Stories of Lupus,'' she's conducting the first-ever Lupus Docu-Thon. The best part about this fund-raiser, says Raymond, is that it requires no physical exercise, as pledges are made online at www.morestoriesoflupus.com. Proceeds will benefit the film production slated for PBS, and also the five local Lupus Foundation of America chapters she visits, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Tucson and New York. For more information, write to Urbin at 331 W. 57th St., No. 531, New York, N.Y. 10019.

-B.D.

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(1 -- 2) ``Suicide is not an indecipherable individual choice; instead it is a public health problemon its way to epidemic stature,'' says Kay Redfield Jamison, author, psychiatry professor and suicide survivor.

(3) no caption (leather bangle bracelets)