Most of us have been touched by suicide. If your life hasn’t been, count yourselves among the lucky and the fortunate. It’s hard to get out of this life without knowing someone who left early.
Between ages 10 and 55, suicide is one of the top four reasons people die in the U.S. every year.
Yet you hear more about heart disease, HIV, diabetes and cancer on the nightly news than you ever do about this fatal but preventable problem. Why is that?
Society and the media appear to continue to believe — and through their belief, reinforce — the lies and the half-truths about suicide.
Today is a day to end your own false beliefs about suicide.
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Thank you for a thoughtful article. Suicide is tragic at any age. The statistics for the youngest group are especially sad.
“And to ensure treatment includes not just a psychiatric medication (in the U.S., most often prescribed not by a psychiatrist, but by a family physician), but also followup treatment with psychotherapy and a psychiatrist’s referral.”
My apologies for copy and pasting this, but I find it in conflict with something said earlier in the article. That being at times anti-depressants at times can aggravate or give one enough energy to act upon their suicidal thoughts. My point and question is; why do doctors and therapists find it necessary to prescribe a pill every time someone gets “down”? I am no stranger to this dilemma. Being one of those with whom the anti-depressants make the problem worse. Causing extreme thoughts I would not have experienced without the drug given. Is it possible to treat patients who are suicidal without the influence of drugs? Can the right psychotherapy help these issues and thoughts of suicide alone?
Why prescriptions are made is a complicated question with no one, simple answer.
Most people who are feeling depressed enough to seek out help for it turn first to their primary care physician. With antidepressants like Prozac being readily available now for over two decades, it’s no secret there’s a pill that may help.
Family docs don’t do psychotherapy and know only what they know (may be a little, may be a lot) about mental health issues. Their only treatment option that they can prescribe on the spot is a psychiatric medication.
Some docs recognize this isn’t good enough for their patients. Some of those docs won’t write the prescription and instead will refer out to a psychiatrist for the prescription and/or a psychologist for therapy and proper diagnosis.
But the vast majority of family physicians will write the prescription, because they want to ease the suffering of their patient. They may also recommend followup and psychotherapy — but once that prescription is written, people’s motivation to followup with a specialist (like a psychiatrist or therapist) can significantly decrease. Combined with depression’s lack of motivation factor already, and most people will never follow through on those additional appointments.
Most physician offices don’t get paid to make sure patients follow through on all the treatment recommendations made. If the business of medicine was focused on patient outcomes instead of what makes a doctor’s office money (in the U.S., anyways), then I’d suspect more patients would get better followup care from their doctors.
Patients are to be blamed as well, since they’re the ones who most often are seeking the quick symptom fix over understanding that most mental health concerns are complex things not “cured” by a pill.
Is there a way to correct errors made in my post? I see a sentence that was improperly written. “That being at times anti-depressants at times can aggravate or give one enough energy to act upon their suicidal thoughts.” I meant to delete the extra “at times” in there. Wow…think I’ll go read some articles on OCD now.
Why not provide a breakdown by gender? Males are four times as likely to commit suicide, and this is a staggering statistic for half the population.
Suicide would be No.1 for males in a few age groups.
For depressed patients, antidepressants provide only partial relief to 50% and no relief for 40%. Only 30% respond to an antidepressant initially and this may take up to 6 weeks to achieve. The most common side effects of antidepressants are weight gain and decreased libido. A new treatment, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) uses an imperceptibly small amount of electricity from a stimulator powered by a 9 volt battery administered by sponge electrodes over targeted areas of the brain. tDCS is similar to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in effect, but much safer. In a study published earlier this year, tDCS reduced depression scores 50% for patients unresponsive to antidepressants and this was maintained for at least 3 months. Cognitive function improves with the initial 20-minute tDCS treatment and depression lessens within a week. tDCS is non-invasive, easy to do, without side effects and can be done by the patient at home. The life-time cost of tDCS is less than the cost of an antidepressant for a year and less than a quarter of the cost of a single TMS protocol. Using a different electrode montage, tDCS provides relief for chronic pain including migraine, fibromyalgia and complex regional pain. tDCS is effective, safe, easy to do, with no side effects and cost-effective.
Social support of friends and family is greatly needed. Every life is purposeful and is worthy to be lived with joy and meaning.. With quality and with freedom to f8nd and experience all the ups and downs and embrace the whole of it. The case of truly wanting to end one’s life is a gravely psychological crisis or issue and we should help one another by looking out for each other. .. Here is a shoetcontemporary dance solo i choreographed as tribute to the world anti suicide day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0iNTDjHdJk&feature=youtube_gdata_player