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Coping with Suicide - How to Deal When Someone Kills Themself

My mother expected something of me that no child could deliver: to never grow up and away from her. To adore her always and unconditionally. Mostly I realized that it wasn't one event that turned her from life to death, but a lifetime of circumstances that culminated in one fateful choice.

Author hints at higher drug use (including prescriptions) then blames individualism

It is not clear what exactly drives the demand for the psychoactive substances and what has driven the increase in suicides. But I think it’s worth speculating whether a perceived low quality of life for many Americans, marked by high stress and low levels of happiness, is contributing. Americans stand out from people in other countries with respect to their focus on individualism. Americans believe that success is determined by our own control and that it is very important to work hard to get ahead in life. Perhaps it is this focus on our own achievements, successes and work culture that have created an environment that is no longer sustainable – it has become too stressful.

A Psychiatrist's Elegy for Anthony Bourdain

This is a very complicated issue without simple causes or solutions. We have Internet bullying. We have too much loneliness and isolation. We have families in dissolution. We have a preponderance of psychiatric treatments that now ignore the heart and soul of what it is to be human. Life is difficult and requires struggle, resilience, and caring to carry on.

A bad night's sleep linked to suicidal thoughts the following day in people with depression

The researchers found that short sleep duration and poor sleep quality both predicted higher severity of suicidal ideation on the following day, even after controlling for anxiety and depression symptom severity. “However, suicidal thoughts did not predict sleep problems the following night,” Littlewood noted.

Brain stimulation reduces suicidal thinking in people with hard-to-treat depression: Findings indicate promising directions to prevent suicide across mental illnesses -- ScienceDaily

A non-invasive form of brain stimulation, rTMS directs magnetic pulses at a targeted area of the brain. In these studies, rTMS was applied to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an area in the frontal lobes, five times a week for either three or six weeks. Participants were randomized to receive rTMS in one of three ways: to both the right and left frontal lobes (bilateral rTMS), the left frontal lobe only (unilateral rTMS) or, as a comparison group, sham rTMS, which is similar to a placebo. Bilateral rTMS showed the biggest effect, and outperformed both other types. Forty per cent of people who received bilateral rTMS reported that they no longer experienced suicidal thoughts by the study end. By comparison, 27 per cent of those who received unilateral rTMS, and 19 per cent of those who received sham rTMS no longer experienced suicidal thoughts. Bilateral rTMS was also the most effective at preventing the development of suicidal thoughts in people who were not experiencing suicidal thinking at the start of the study.

The Lilly Suicides - Adbusters | Journal of the mental environment

Reports that Prozac might be unsafe at any dose had Lilly running scared. As early as 1990, one executive stated in an internal memo that, if Prozac is taken off the market, the company could “go down the tubes.” With the US Food and Drug Administration asking questions, Lilly was pressed to show that their drug was safe. The result was published on September 21, 1991. Authored by Lilly employees, the report claimed to represent all existing data comparing Prozac with either older antidepressants or placebos. In fact, the data had been handpicked to favor the drug and the company. The analysis dealt with 3,065 patients, less than 12 percent of the total data from Prozac studies at the time. Among those whose data were left out was the very population most likely to become suicidal –the five or so percent of patients who dropped out of the clinical trials because they experienced unpleasant side effects after taking Prozac.