For example, according to one study, identical twins share suicidal tendencies 15 per cent of the time, compared with 1 per cent in non-identical twins ( Journal of Affective Disorders, doi.org/d23nvw). There is also growing evidence that genetics plays a role. This suggests that the drug may be acting on neural pathways that specifically influence suicidal tendencies ( Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology, doi.org/dfjv57). For example, when people with bipolar disorder who have previously attempted suicide begin taking lithium, they tend to stop attempting suicide even if the drug has no effect on their other symptoms. ![]() The search for more of these factors is complicated by the rarity of brain samples from suicide victims and the lack of an animal model – humans are unique in their wilful ability to end their lives. These factors include a history of abuse as a child, post-traumatic stress disorder, long periods of anxiety, or sleep deprivation. What is more likely, he says, is that environmental factors trigger a series of changes in the brains of people who are already genetically prone to suicide, contributing to a constellation of factors that ultimately increase risk. These characteristics appeared regardless of whether the people had suffered from depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or no disorder at all ( Brain Research, doi.org/cvrpjk).īut there is no single neurological cause of suicide, says Gustavo Turecki of McGill University in Montreal. But that view began to change when autopsies revealed distinctive features in the brains of people who had committed suicide, including structural changes in the prefrontal cortex – which controls high-level decision-making – and altered levels of the neurochemical serotonin. Until the 1980s, the accepted view in psychiatry was that people who committed suicide were, by definition, depressed. This could allow psychiatrists to better predict someone’s suicide risk, and even lead to treatments that stop suicidal feelings. It was ultimately put on probation: put into a list of topics deemed to require further research for possible inclusion in future DSM revisions.Īnother argument for linking suicidal people together under a single diagnosis is that it could spur research into the neurological and genetic factors they have in common. ![]() The team behind the fifth edition of the Diagnostic Standards Manual ( DSM-5) – the newest version of psychiatry’s “bible”, released at the American Psychiatric Association’s meeting in San Francisco this week – considered a proposal to have “suicide behaviour disorder” listed as a distinct diagnosis. The idea of classifying suicidal tendencies as a disease is being taken seriously.
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