A team of Scientists have found some differences in brain who have suicidal thoughts :SCIENCETINE

 

    Suicide has become a major health issue worldwide. Globally, one person dies every 40 seconds by killing themselves by hanging or using any other suicidal action. It is close to 800,000 people die from suicide every year. The global suicide rate is over twice as high among men than women. Most dying people from suicide have shown suicidal attempts before they got killed themselves. If some loved one could help them their lives may be secured. The suicide rate is higher among the age group of 15-29 or among the youth. Suicide is illegal in many countries while some countries accept it as a punishing method, as an example is the Shariya law.

    There are numerous reasons to rise suicidal thoughts in someone’s mind. They can be categorized under several titles. Individual, relationship and cultural or societal factors are some of them. Under individual factors, his or her ability to control the mind is considered. If someone has mental disorders like depression etc., if he is unable to find solutions for their legal, or financial issues, has long-term pain or terminal illness, or is disabled and if someone is addicted to drugs and alcohol above mentioned people are more likely tend to suicide. When lost a relationship through break ups or divorce, if the person has a history of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse and neglect or bullying, if the person is not supported, and if he has a family history of death by suicide are the things considered under relationship factors. Increasing suicides are covered by the media and it indirectly impacts the raising again rate of suicidal deaths. In some religious beliefs committing suicide is a noble option to resolve a personal dilemma. Lack of health services and lack of confidence to ask for help also come under societal factors.

     It is needed to find out those mentally broken down people because they need our help. By just exchanging a few words with them we can prevent another act of suicide. For that, you need to know about the characteristics of those people. If a person has long-lasting sadness a person like him may have a probability of having suicidal thoughts. If someone becomes silent or calm after a period of moodiness that person also should be considered. By recognizing one’s unusual sleep patterns, harmful and dangerous behavior, and avoiding social events we can easily recognize these people and help them.

    This article mainly focuses not only on suiciders but also on the latest research that conducted by an international team of scientists, including Neda Jahanshad, Ph.D., of the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. They have found that there are some subtle alterations in the size of the prefrontal region of the brain of young people who have mood disorders and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

    Jahanshad says in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, “Along with my colleagues at the Stevens INI, an international team of neuroscientists, psychologists, and psychiatrists came together under the ENIGMA Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors (ENIGMA-STB) working group, a National Institute of Mental Health-funded part of the ENIGMA Consortium, to pool together the amount of data this type of study requires. Suicidal behaviors occur across many mental illnesses, so instead of focusing on a single illness in small samples, we pulled together researchers who had data on suicidal behaviors in young people and coordinated a large-scale team science initiative to compare data across the disorders, here, with a focus on youth.”

    Laura van Velzen, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Youth Mental Health, the University of Melbourne said explaining further about their study “Benefitting from the large data set that we had available, we were able to perform analyses in multiple subsamples, We started with data from a smaller group of young people with mood disorders for whom very detailed information about suicide was available. Next, we were able to look at larger and more diverse samples in terms of the type of diagnosis and the instruments which were used to assess suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Our results show subtle alterations in the size of the frontal pole, a prefrontal region, in this first sample of young people, and suggest that these associations may be absent or more difficult to identify in more diverse samples. Besides revealing subtle alterations in prefrontal brain structure associated with suicidal behavior in young people, our study shows the strength of combining data from 21 international studies and the need for carefully harmonizing data across studies.”

    “The structural brain differences that we found were very subtle, which means that most people with a history of suicidal behaviors have brains that are not very different from people without a history of suicidal behaviors, which is reassuring,” Van Velzen explained. “However, the subtle differences that we found do provide us with a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in suicidal behaviors and may eventually provide important targets for the next generation of more effective suicide prevention strategies.”

    The team is still doing further studies on this case expanding their analysis. “This study exemplifies the power of researchers like Dr. Jahanshad and her colleagues, who seek to unite with specialists across the globe to better understand and amass significant amounts of data,” says INI Director, Arthur W. Toga, Ph.D. “The goal of the ENIGMA Consortium is to bring researchers together from around the world so that we can combine existing data samples and really improve our power to examine the brain in these potentially devastating mental illnesses. Additionally, the collaborative efforts of our faculty and former students like Armand Amini show our commitment to putting our research to practical use to benefit the USC community and beyond.”

    If you notice someone showing the above-mentioned characteristics take it seriously and take care of them. Talk with them in a friendly manner and make them feel that they are not alone. Encourage them to live. If you feel that you are unable to do that seek some help from professionals. Never let them lose hope.