People take their own lives at a rate of nearly one million deaths a year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). There are innumerable causes to this issue, varying from isolation, loss and abuse to even sunshine, as a research group at the Medizinische Universitat Wein, the Medical University of Vienna, has recently found.
Scientists have already noticed that seasons appear to have an effect on suicide rates, but there are a variety of factors that could cause this. A research group in Vienna decided to tackle this uncertainty in the hopes of identifying risk factors that might one day aid the fight against suicide. The study was conducted by comparing 69,462 cases from January 1970 until May 2010 with meteorological station estimates of daily sunshine. Possible confounders such as seasonal and climate data were accounted for, and correlation analyses were coordinated.
The group found their hypothesis, that there would be a positive correlation between sunshine hours and suicides, to be partially correct. The positive correlation was found to be significant for up to 10 days preceding the suicide, but a negative correlation was observed from days 14 to 60. This means that sunshine the day of the suicide and 10 days before that date actually facilitated suicide. Females appear to be more prone to a positive correlation than males, and previous studies explained that females needed a shorter sunshine exposure to trigger suicide. With more mood disorders, females have a higher rate of attempted suicide, but males have a higher committed rate, as seen in a study in 2012 (18 per 100,000 males and 11 per 100,000 females). This study has shortcomings, as most strongly statistical studies do. The strong correlation found doesn’t completely exclude potential climatic factors, or the amount of received solar radiation, which has also been shown to have a positive effect within four days of the suicide event.
The researchers aren’t certain what the key player in this effect is, but they suspect it may be serotonin, a neurotransmitter. Serotonin is highly sensitive to changes in sunshine. This neurotransmitter has a wide scope of action, responsible for appetite, sleep, memory and most fittingly, mood. Impulsivity and suicidal ideation have been associated with this neurotransmitter, and previously even treated with phototherapy (light therapy).
Efforts to eradicate this issue have been undertaken by the World Health Organization (WHO) and supported by many countries around the world. This measure requires an adept change in the perceptions to suicide worldwide, the empowerment of those who are in need of help and an end to the taboo that haunts the act. At the beginning of the 19th century, attempting suicide entailed punishment, and even jail time. The seriousness of the act was propagated by religion and the government as well, keeping people in need of help from finding people keen to bring them back on to their feet. Slowly this is changing, as the impact of the loss of these people is recognized not only by families and friends, but also by worldwide communities.
No matter the cause or correlation, suicide is a matter of serious concern. It has now turned into a multidisciplinary scientific study, as branches of psychology, psychiatry, sociology and anthropology attempt to find ways to understand and predict the happenings. The WHO has issued a “Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020” in which committed member states work towards reducing suicide rates by 10 percent by 2020, hoping to stop the tragedy that haunts so many around the world.
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