Newsletter

Suicidality2021-07-24

To be, or not to be, that is the question.

William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Vulnerability to suicide may be due to a person’s perception of suffering or being damaged (lack of satisfaction about one’s past life and current life), with no future (lack of hope for success in the future), unimportant (lack of importance and meaning to one’s life), or all of the above1. This corresponds to the subtypes of suicidality my group has identified2: anxious subtype, depressed subtype, psychotic subtype, and mixed subtype(s). Suicide may be perceived by the person contemplating it as escaping the pain of a bad life (anxious subtype), eliminating a burden to others and freeing resources for others (low mood subtype), or as a way of making people who have harmed you suffer/feel guilty (psychotic subtype). The other components are the idea that it is an acceptable solution (“It is OK to do it”), and the environment is opportune to do it (“I can do it”).

Individuals can privately keep track of their suicidality, and develop insights on how their feelings, thoughts and life events impact it, using our Life x Mind app. Their clinicians can get an objective assessment about the patient’s risk for suicidality, and pre-emptive, personalized, counselling and lifestyle changes, with our Life x Improve digital test. Clinicians can also get an objective assessment about the patient’s risk for suicidality, and pre-emptive, personalized, medication and nutraceutical choices, with our MindX Blood Testing.

Live. Happier. Longer.

Bob

Footnotes

  1. Niculescu AB, Levey DF, Phalen PL, Le-Niculescu H, Dainton HD, Jain N et al. Understanding and predicting suicidality using a combined genomic and clinical risk assessment approach. Mol Psychiatry 2015; 20(11): 1266-1285.

  2. Niculescu AB, Le-Niculescu H, Levey DF, Phalen PL, Dainton HL, Roseberry K et al. Precision medicine for suicidality: from universality to subtypes and personalization. Mol Psychiatry 2017; 22(9): 1250-1273.