Suicidal tendencies

Historical data on suicides have been known since antiquity.All over the world, people who end up living with suicide, in most cases were mentally handicapped.

A separate category consisted of followers of Buddhism in China, Japan, India.Depriving themselves of life in these countries was highly welcomed and constituted one of the variants of the feat.

Note: according to WHO statistics, annually in the world about half a million people commit suicide.

Contents: historical aspect Aspects of suicidal Peculiarities of suicidal dependence suicide risk of disease personal factor as the cause of suicidal mood Suicidal tendencies in psychiatric pathologies

Suicide and suicidal tendencies through the prism of history

Gymnosophists India determined suicide as an optionChange of residence.After the death of their husbands, representatives of this religion, their wives were self-immolated.

Ancient Egypt.The times of Mark Antony.The Academy is a synapophymion.The adherents of this institution consistently, one by one, deprived themselves of life.At the preliminary sessions, various options for easy, pleasant and peculiar death were offered, discussed and prepared.

There are known ways of ending the life of the Celts, who considered shame to be the death from illness in bed.A suitable death they met with magnificent holidays, which ended with a jump from high cliffs to the abyss of the sea.

In ancient Rome, suicide was resolved after the trial.In Greece, even an attempted suicide was considered a crime requiring cutting off the hands of an unsuccessful suicide.

Philosophers have expressed themselves on this topic also in different ways.Seneca was loyal to suicides, Pliny considered independent deprivation of life a mercy.

in Russia has always been condemned by suicide due to the prevalence of the Christian worldview.

However XX century and especially during the last decade have brought growth in the number of suicides in Russia and in the highly developed countries, occupying the first place ranking for the well-being of citizens.Especially often to voluntary deprivation of life resorted to years of economic turmoil and crises.

A very high percentage of deaths as a result of an independently taken decision to die was observed in Japan.According to WHO, suicides in the age category from 15 to 44 years were among the main causes of death in this country.High mortality from suicidal causes is registered in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, USA.

The urgency of the problem has created the need to solve it, and that is why Russian psychiatrists and scientists around the world are actively working on suicidology today.

Theoretical aspects of suicidal

Psychiatric school XIX century considered suicide as a manifestation of mental illness, believing that to deprive yourself of life can only be a person in a state of madness.

these theories held and Russian psychopathology, claimed that suicides are the anatomical conditions in the form of a specific structure of the skull base and its defects.

Durkheim developed a sociological theory to explain suicide as a product gap interpersonal relations person, the separation of man from the group in which it is located.

According to the theory of I.P.Pavlova, the idea of ​​self-destruction arises from the disappearance of a person's "goal reflex," that is, aspirations for life and its ideals.

Modern theories consider suicide, as a consequence of personal socio-psychological maladjustment, which occurs against the background of existing conflicts.A suicidal situation can have a real basis, or it can develop as a result of a patient's mental pathology.

There are a lot of theories explaining suicide, which indicates the ambiguity of the problem and its complexity.

Each case of suicide requires an individual study that will take into account all the personality characteristics and external factors surrounding this person.

Suicidal risk can increase national customs, family relationships, cultural values, attitudes to alcohol and many other factors.

Age, social and gender characteristics of the formation of suicidal tendencies

Women are more prone to suicide than men;The number of suicides among women and men is in the ratio of 2-3: 1.The methods that women try to use in this case are easier than those preferred by the male sex.

The peculiarity of men is that they often bring things to the end.

Note: age categories of suicides are different, there are cases of self-care from the life of children aged 3-6 years.The first peak wave comes in 10-14 years, the second - in 15-19.

The most suicidal age is from 20 to 30 years.The next peak belongs to the group of 45-49 years, and the last one is observed in 65-70-year-old people.

Among urban suicides, the urban population is predominant.Less often slopes to suicides are people who are married and have children.A special category of suicides is pupils of boarding schools and orphanages.

Education and development do not play a special role.Suicidal tendencies are inclined both developed and poorly educated people.More attempts are made by students, doctors, drivers of transport, employees of the service system.

The number of suicides during the economic crises, wars increases in wave form.

Note: most often suicides are committed in the spring, on Mondays, late at night or early in the morning.

Dependence of suicidal risk from diseases

Often the cause of suicide are:

• Diseases of internal organs.The greatest number of suicides is attributed to persons suffering from pathology of the respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, musculoskeletal system.
• Diseases of the brain.Acute cerebral pathology is favorable in terms of suicide statistics, but as it is being chronicized, predisposition to suicidal tendencies, especially in cases of severe organic damage to the brain tissue, is increasing.
• Mental pathology.Patients with mental illness commit suicide according to different data from 26 to 100 times more often than people with a healthy psyche.

Personal factor as the cause of suicidal mood

Increased risk is observed in individuals with a disharmony of character caused by an exaggerated development of intelligence, emotional and strong-willed traits.Suicidal can be any feature of character: isolation, sensitivity, excitability, explosiveness.

The choice of the solution is influenced by the social group in which the ideas about admissibility and justification of suicidal thoughts are practiced.

A separate vulnerable category of people are sects of religious content.Resonant mass suicide took place in the Jim Jones sect "People's Temple" in 1978, in which more than 900 members of the organization took part in the "revolutionary" rush of care, not counting those killed in the shootout.

In 1993, the David Koresh sect "Branch of David" exposed itself to mass self-immolation, in which about 100 people died.

Ritual suicide occurred in 1994 in the organization "Temple of the Sun", where 53 people left their lives in stages, the suicide of the sectarians continued.The total number of victims was about 80 people.

The most organized, cold-blooded and ordinary suicide was committed by the adherents of the community "Celestial Gate", engaged in work in the field of information technology.In 1997, their head announced the necessary withdrawal from this world and "fly" to other planets.Using barbiturates, about 40 sectarians voluntarily ended their lives.

Similar cases are likely to continue.

Suicidal tendencies in particular cases of mental pathology

Let's consider several variants of mental pathology that can lead patients to a loss of life.

Suicide in schizophrenia

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Researchers report different suicidal activity in this disease.According to scientists from different schools, from 1% to 63.5% of schizophrenic patients are among the total number of suicides.

The risk of developing suicidal tendencies and suicide in schizophrenia increases in the case of:

• for a long-term current variant of the disease;
• frequent exacerbations;
• more severe forms and stages.

In women, the maximum number of attempted suicides in schizophrenia is noted at 3-4, and also 7-8 years after the onset of the disease.Men have critical years - 4 and 9 years of disease.Then there is a decrease in predisposition to suicide.

Among the clinical forms of schizophrenia most susceptible to the possibility of committing suicide, is depressive syndrome with hallucinations and paranoid tendencies.

The impetus to attempt to kill yourself can become a painful fear, an imaginary threat to life, intimidating and ordering "internal" voices.Suicide in these cases is the decision of the patient, eliminating the cause of his "threats".Some of the patients who want to commit suicide do the will of "outside power"( hallucinations).

Depression and manic-depressive syndrome as the cause of suicide

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According to A.M.Ponizovsky( 1980), the incidence of suicidal tendencies in manic-depressive syndrome is 60%.

Psychiatrists describe specific inclinations: "chronic disposition to suicide", "suicide syndrome", "psychosis of suicides".

Patients suffering from manic-depressive psychosis, explain their attempts by the desire to get rid of relatives and doctors from "unnecessary trouble" or "unnecessary family member".Some motivate suicidal tendencies by indispensable atonement and punishment for their unworthy behavior and life.Patients may stop taking food, insistently ask them to make a "fatal" injection.

Some of the people suffering from TIR are trying to take their own lives because of hypochondriacal fears, fear of inferior existence.The cause of suicide in reactive depression is the resulting mental trauma( the breakdown of relationships, marriage, loss of work, etc.).

Suicides and psychopathies

Available statistical data on the specific weight of psychopathies in the total number of suicides also vary.Data vary in the range of 20-60% of the total number of suicides.On average, they are 24% -31%.

True suicide in psychopathy is often preceded by "suicidal behavior".

Most often, self-murdered suicides are part of a group of hysterical psychopaths.As a rule, they make repeated attempts."Entering the role" sooner or later realize a suicidal tendency.

In this respect, the behavior of suicide psychopaths is similar to the manifestation of a pronounced demonstrative personality accentuation( according to K. Leonhard), but in very rare cases the accent is able to complete his behavior with a concrete act.

Suicidal tendencies in alcoholic intoxications

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Strong alcohol intoxication conditions create conditions for the formation of suicidal tendencies and their subsequent realization.In some cases, the idea of ​​suicide matured in man even before intoxication, and alcoholization only served as an impetus for its implementation.In other people, the idea may arise spontaneously as the dysphoric version of intoxication grows.Such patients can realize their desire very quickly.Especially when it comes to the existing and disassembled psychopathies, which, in combination with alcoholization, stimulate all existing suicidal tendencies.

Chronic alcoholism is also a kind of contributing pathology, which causes the stimulation of pathological ideas, including suicidal aspirations.Especially often chronic alcoholism becomes the cause of suicide in women.We will not disassemble this kind of pathology in detail, we only note that each stage of alcoholism has its own variants of suicidality.

The percentage of realization of suicides among patients with alcoholic psychoses is very high.In this case, suicidal tendencies are explained both by the insanity of the patients, and by the horrific experiences of the awesome character that they experience.Suicide attempts to solve all their problems.

There is no specific treatment for suicidal tendencies.

Prevention consists in the healing of the underlying pathology, the psychotherapeutic work with patients, and the early detection of persons with depressive experiences.

Alexander Lotin, medical reviewer