Researchers at the University of Utah studied anonymized genetic data from more than 2,700 people who died by suicide. They compared people who had non-fatal suicidal thoughts or behaviour before with those who had no known history.
About half of the people had no documented suicidal thoughts or known psychiatric conditions tied to suicide risk. The study found that the group without known suicidality had fewer psychiatric diagnoses and fewer genetic risk factors for several conditions.
The team says that simply increasing depression screening may not find everyone at risk. They plan further work to find hidden at-risk people. If you need help, call 988.
Difficult words
- anonymize — make personal data not show people’s namesanonymized
- genetic — related to genes or DNA in a person
- suicidality — tendency or history of thinking about suicide
- psychiatric — connected with mental illness or mental health
- diagnosis — doctor's identification of a health conditiondiagnoses
- risk factor — something that makes a bad outcome more likelyrisk factors
Tip: hover, focus or tap highlighted words in the article to see quick definitions while you read or listen.
Discussion questions
- Why might some at-risk people be hard to find?
- What could researchers do to find hidden at-risk people?
- If someone needs help, what would you do after seeing the number 988?
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