suicide
gregladen | April 17, 2009... there is no way to turn way from it, but we are often poorly prepared to deal with it, especially when it involves teenagers. Face it: adults like it when teenagers finally learn to hide some of their emotions. Maturity = knowing how to leave other people out of your bad shit. We reward this behavior and we model it by building and maintaining a Barbified and Kenified culture. But every now and then a kid goes too far for their own good and, not to shock you or anything, but the morgue is not the appropriate place to have "that conversation" about life.
I've been lucky. I was never…
edyong | February 25, 2009Imagine that a massive hole appeared in a wall of your house, and you'd decided to fix it yourself. You head over to a DIY store and load up on plaster, tools and paint and look forward to many hard and tedious hours of work. If that seems like a chore, you might get some perspective by considering the plight of the gall aphid Nipponaphis monzeni. When holes appear in their homes, some unlucky individuals are tasked with repairing the damage using their own bodily fluids. They sacrifice themselves for the sake of some DIY.
Some species of aphids are heading towards the incredibly cooperative…
edyong | February 22, 2009The trauma of child abuse can last a lifetime, leading to a higher risk of anxiety, depression and suicide further down the line. This link seems obvious, but a group of Canadian scientists have found that it has a genetic basis.
By studying the brains of suicide victims, Patrick McGowan from the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, found that child abuse modifies a gene called NR3C1 that affects a person's ability to deal with stress. The changes it wrought were "epigenetic", meaning that the gene's DNA sequence wasn't altered but it's structure was modified to make it less active.…
edyong | February 20, 2009When it comes to discussing suicide bombers, the controversial topic of religion is never far behind. Scholars and pundits have proposed several theories to explain why people would sacrifice their lives to take those of others, and conjectures about religious views seem easy to defend. After all, anthropologist Scott Atran estimated that since 2000, 70% of suicide attacks have been carried out by religious groups, and Islamic ones in particular.
But for all the speculation, very few people have examined the supposed link between religion and suicide attacks with an objective scientific eye…
grrlscientist | October 3, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, treatment-emergent suicidal ideation, suicide, citalopram, celexa, SSRI, black box warning
Despite what the news might have you believe, it is quite rare for a depressed person to exhibit increased suicidal thinking after they have begun treatment with an SSRI, such as citalopram (celexa). According to the statistics, so-called "treatment-emergent suicidal ideation" occurs only in approximately 4% of all people taking citalopram, whereas this same phenomenon also occurs in 2% of all placebo-treated cases. However, in those unusual cases where suicidal ideation does…
sb admin | September 12, 2007 Check out this memorial cookbook compiled by survivors of suicide. It's a lovely resource to share in times of distress: memories, poetry and support along with recipes for comforting food.
"Each victim of suicide gives his act a personal stamp which expresses his temperament the special conditions in which he is involved, and which, cannot be explained by the social and general causes of the phenomenon." --Emile Durkheim
Click here if you are in crisis right now. Please.
grrlscientist | September 10, 2007tags: suicide, world suicide prevention day, mental health, depression, bipolar disorder
Suicide is a major public health issue and accounts for nearly 3% of all deaths worldwide -- around the world, one million people will die by suicide this year. But suicide is a taboo subject that many people, regardless of age, sex, socioeconomic status or religious and cultural affiliations, are ashamed of, and rarely speak about. This veil of secrecy leads to needless deaths worldwide. So as a result, today was designated as World Suicide Prevention Day, which is designed to raise public awareness of…
grrlscientist | September 6, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, mental health, suicide, depression, bipolar disorder, SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antidepressants, FDA black-box warning
Prozac.
Image: Tom Varco
After a 2003 report linking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, with increased suicide rates among children and teen agers was published, the use of this class of antidepressants in these age groups has decreased dramatically. This led to a change in labeling in 2003 that warned that use of the medications could increase suicidal thoughts and behavior among youths. Sadly, this 'black…
tlambert | December 17, 2004The National Academy of Sciences panel on firearms and violence has reported its findings. The press release says:
There is no credible evidence that "right-to-carry" laws, which allow qualified adults to carry concealed handguns, either decrease or increase violent crime. To date, 34 states have enacted these laws.
There is almost no evidence that violence-prevention programs intended to steer children away from guns have had any effects on their behavior, knowledge, or attitudes regarding firearms. More than 80 such programs exist.
Research has found associations between gun…
tlambert | May 30, 2002Joseph Olson writes:
Ask any gun dealer about women buying handguns for self protection.
A dealer friend tells me that over =BD of his handgun purschasers are
women but also tells me that most of them are very concerned that NO ONE
will know that they have a gun. It's his opinion, after talking with
these REAL buyers, that none of them would admit gun ownership to a
surveyor. None of them subscribe to "gun magazines." And, if they
commit suicide, I'll bet $10 they don't use the gun. So there is a HUGH
hole in the information base. None of these women kill baby animals
either.
And none…
tlambert | September 18, 1996Georgie Stanford writes:
The thesis is the following:
(1) Worldwide suicide rates are essentially the same regardless
of political factors such as availability of firearms
when matched for age and sex. Worldwide these are about
1.5% in all whole populations except for 2).
Really?
From the UN demographic yearbook I computed percentages of deaths that
were suicides:
El Salvador 4%
Japan 2.5%
Fiji 2%
Korea 1.5%
Nicaragua 1%
Mexico 0.5%
There seems to be quite a bit of variation there.
(2) Males of northern European extraction have a higher total
suicide rate of about 2.5% regardless of…