New genetic research from the University of Utah analysed anonymized data from more than 2,700 people who died by suicide. The researchers compared those with prior non-fatal suicidal thoughts or behaviours to people with no known history of suicidality.
The study found that about half of people who died by suicide had no documented suicidal thoughts or psychiatric conditions linked to suicide risk. The group without known suicidality had fewer psychiatric diagnoses and fewer genetic risk factors for several psychiatric disorders.
Specifically, this group showed lower genetic risk for major depressive disorder, anxiety, Alzheimer’s disease and PTSD, and they were not more likely than the general population to show milder traits such as depressed mood or neuroticism. The authors say depression screening alone may not identify all at-risk people. If you need help, call 988.
Difficult words
- analyse — examine information carefully to find meaninganalysed
- anonymize — remove names or identifying information from dataanonymized
- suicidality — thoughts or behaviours that can cause self-harm
- psychiatric — relating to mental illness and its treatment
- diagnosis — medical decision about what illness a person hasdiagnoses
- genetic risk factor — genes that increase a person's chance of illnessgenetic risk factors
- major depressive disorder — a severe form of long-term depression
- screening — tests to find signs of a disease early
Tip: hover, focus or tap highlighted words in the article to see quick definitions while you read or listen.
Discussion questions
- Do you think depression screening is enough to find all people at risk of suicide? Why or why not?
- What other ways could doctors or researchers try to identify people at risk who have no documented suicidal thoughts?
- How do you feel about the use of anonymized data in research about suicide and mental health?
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