People commit suicide not because of “head problems”: scientists have identified an unexpected reason for this phenomenon

The study, conducted jointly by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, found that physical health problems play a significant role in suicides.

By analyzing data on more than 300,000 suicide deaths in the United States from 2003 to 2020, the group of people facing physical illness was the largest and fastest growing of all subgroups of suicide deaths over the past two decades, JAMA Psychiatry reports. .

The study identified five different patterns of risk factors, with physical problems particularly prominent. An interesting finding is that almost a third of all suicides occurred in people who did not have a documented mental disorder but did have a physical illness.

The study’s findings highlight the importance of identifying people at risk and taking steps to prevent suicide before they attempt it.