Neuropsychological Correlates of Suicidal Behavior

Cognitive theories of suicidal behavior postulate that the behavior of a suicidal individual stems from their irrational thoughts about negative and unpleasant events. Cognitive neuropsychology aims to understand how these (aberrant) cognitive processes relate to areas of the brain responsible for memory, speech, pattern recognition and problem-solving. Several neuropsychological correlates of suicidal behavior have been identified and a battery of neuropsychological tests have been used to compare individuals exhibiting suicidal behavior with those that do not. Drawing on the available research literature, we ask whether suicidal behavior has a distinct neuropsychological ’signature’ and if so, what this signature tells us about its aetiology

An act of catharsis or a cry for help? Decreased anxiety as a postcedent of a non-fatal suicide attempt

Introduction More than 40 years ago, an American physician called R. Gregory Austin suggested that suicide was an act of catharsis. He coined the terms attempters (mostly women appealing for a change in their lives) and committers (mostly men driven by self-hatred) to describe two distinct populations of suicidal patients. Austin was convinced that only the latter group really sought catharsis. Method We compared reported mean anxiety levels in male and female inpatients (N = 629) presenting with either no suicidal behavior, death wish, suicidal ideation or who had recently made a non-fatal suicide attempt. Results We found that female patients with suicidal ideation had much higher levels of anxiety compared to their non-suicidal counterparts. However, the anxiety levels of female patients who had recently made a non-fatal suicide attempt were not significantly different to those of non-suicidal women. No similar trends were found in male patients. Conclusion Catharsis (Greek: κάθαρσις) means to purge or cleanse the emotions (of fear, pity). Our results suggest that, in contrast to Austin’s original observation, both women and men undertake acts of catharsis: it is simply that the focus of their cathartic act differs. For men, anxiety appears to play no significant role or has no consequence in their suicidal behavior. For women, their catharsis appears to be the purging or normalizing of anxiety

Suicide risk assessment: State of the art and future perspectives

Current epidemiological data reveal that suicide is a prominent cause of death worldwide with approximately one million victims per year and therefore represents a major challenge for the public health systems of modern societies. To improve our methods of suicide prevention, the reliable assessment of an individual person’s suicide risk at any point in time with sufficient sensitivity and specificity appears to be an important milestone, but this has not yet been achieved. The present contribution provides a review of the enormous complexity of the problem and suggests an integrated approach taking into account not only clinical and psychosocial aspects, but also recent neurobiological findings