Chapter 9 - Suicide Flashcards

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1
Q

What rank is suicide in the most common causes of death

A
  • Number 10

- More people die by suicide than homicide (42,773:15,809)

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2
Q

Parasuicides

A

Unsuccessful attempts at suicide

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3
Q

What is the estimated number of deaths per year by suicide? How many in the U.S?

A
  • 1 million

- more than 42,000

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4
Q

What is suicide psychologically?

A

a breakdown of coping skills, emotional turmoil and a distorted view of life

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5
Q

Definition of Suicide

A
  • an intentional death

- a self-inflicted death in which one makes an intentional, direct and conscious effort to end one’s life

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6
Q

Edwin Shneidman

A
  • defined suicide
  • created categories of the 4 kinds of suicidal people (death seekers, death initiators, death ignorers, death darers)
  • believed that the key to suicide was “psychache”
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7
Q

Death seekers

A

These people clearly intend to end their lives at the time they attempt suicide.

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8
Q

Death Initiators

A
  • These people clearly intend to end their lives but they act out in belief that the process of death is already underway and that they are simply hastening the process
  • Suicides among very sick and elderly fall in this category
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9
Q

Death ignorers

A

These people do not believe that their self-inflicted death will mean the end of their existence. They believe they are trading their life for a happier or better existence.

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10
Q

Death darers

A
  • These people experience mixed feelings, or ambivalence about their intent to die, even at the moment of their attempt, they show this ambivalence in the act itself.
  • Risk taking behavior does not guarantee death
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11
Q

Subintentional death

A
  • Created by Shneidman
  • When people play indirect, covert, partial or unconscious roles in their own deaths
  • Rx mismanagement, alcohol and tobacco use, recurrent physical fighting, self-injury, self-mutilation fall into this category
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12
Q

Retrospective Analysis

A
  • A kind of psychological autopsy in which clinicians and researchers piece together data from the suicide victims past
  • Family, friends, therapists and physicians try to recall past statements, conversations and behaviors
  • Suicide notes also help in this category
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13
Q

Studying people who survive their suicide attempts

A
  • 12 nonfatal attempts for every one fatal attempt

- However, these people can have important differences from the people who took their lives

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14
Q

Religious affiliations and belief’s

A
  • Explain for the national differences in number of suicides
  • Countries that are catholic, Jewish or Muslim tend to have lower suicide rates
  • Poland, a largely roman catholic country, has one of the highest rates of suicide in the world
  • Now believe that your devoutness to your religion has an impact on suicide prevention
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15
Q

What is the percentage of guns used by males and females in suicide

A
  • 62% of males

- 37% of females

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16
Q

How much more likely are women to attempt suicide?

A

women are three times more likely to attempt it but men are three times more likely to actually die

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17
Q

Who has the highest suicide rate out of the races?

A

American Indians followed by Non-Hispanic white Americans

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18
Q

What are the common triggering factors of suicide?

A
  • stressful events
  • mood changes
  • thought changes
  • alcohol and drug use
  • mental disorders
  • modeling
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19
Q

How much more likely are veterans to commit suicide than nonveterans?

A

twice as likely

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20
Q

what situations and stressful events trigger suicide

A
  • Social Isolation
  • Serious Illness
  • Abusive or Repressive Environment
  • Occupational stress
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21
Q

What precedes many suicide attempts

A

Mood changes

22
Q

Psychache

A

a feeling of psychological pain that seems intolerable to the person

23
Q

Hopelessness

A

a pessimistic belief that their present circumstances, problems, or mood will not change

24
Q

Dichotomous thinking

A

viewing problems and solutions in rigid either/or terms

25
Q

What percent of people drink alcohol before attempting suicide? Why?

A
  • 70% of people
  • it lowers a person inhibitions, reduces fears, releases underlying aggressive feelings or impairs judgement and problem solving ability
26
Q

Do all suicide attempts involve psychological disorders?

A
  • No
  • although a vast majority do have a mental disorder: 70% have severe depression, 20% have chronic alcoholism, 10% have schizophrenia
  • 25% of people with each of these disorders try to kill themselves
27
Q

What does Modeling include?

A
Suicide by:
 - family members 
- friends 
- celebrities 
- highly publicized cases 
- coworkers 
Often serve as models for others to go off of and lead to an increase in suicide with those surrounding them
28
Q

Psychodynamic view of Suicide

A
  • believe that suicide results from depression and anger at others that is redirected towards oneself
  • Freud and Abraham believe people “introject”
29
Q

Introject

A

a person unconsciously incorporate the person into their own identity and feel toward themselves as they had felt toward the other

30
Q

How is suicide thought of in Pyschodynamic view

A

thought to be an extreme expression of this self-hatred and self-punishment

31
Q

Frued

A
  • proposed people have a death instinct (Thanatos) which opposes the life instinct
  • most people learn to redirect their death instinct by aiming it towards others, but suicidal people, caught in a self-web of anger, direct it squarely towards themselves
32
Q

Durkhein’s Sociocultural View

A
  • Discovered by Emile Durkehin
  • developed a broad theory of suicide: the probability of suicide is determined by how attached a person is to such social groups as the family, religious institutions, and community. The more thoroughly a person belongs the lower the risk of suicide
33
Q

Durkheins categories of suicides

A
  • Egoistic Suicides
  • Altruistic Suicides
  • Anomic Suicides
34
Q

Egoistic Suicides

A

These are carried out by people over whom society has little or no control meaning these people rejects the structure of society

35
Q

Altruistic Suicides

A
  • These are undertaken by people who are so well integrated into the social structure that they intentionally sacrifice their lives for its well-being
  • Societies that encourage people to sacrifice themselves for others to preserve their honor
36
Q

Anomic Suicides

A
  • These are those pursued by people whose social environment fails to provide stable structures, such as a family and religion, to support and give meaning to life
  • acted by a person who feels as though they have been let down by a disorganized, inadequate and often decaying society
37
Q

Interpersonal View

A
  • created by Thomas Joiner

- Interpersonal theory of suicide

38
Q

Interpersonal theory of suicide

A
  • (interpersonal-psychological theory) asserts that people will be inclined to pursue suicide if they hold two key interpersonal beliefs: perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness - and at the same time have a psychological capability to carry out suicide, a capability that they have acquired from life experiences
  • People with just these two traits are unlikely to attempt suicide, they must have the third variable which is the psychological capability to inflict lethal harm on themselves
39
Q

Perceived Burdensomeness

A

Believe that their existence places a heavy and permanent burden on their family, friends and even society

40
Q

Thwarted Belongingness

A

Feel isolated and alienated from others - not an integral part of a family or social network

41
Q

Biological View

A
  • found higher rates of suicide among those that had family members who committed suicide
  • discovered that a large portion of suicides involved low serotonin levels and a dysfunction in the depression-related brain circuit
42
Q

Is suicide linked to age?

A

Suicide increases with age up through the middle ages, then decreases during the early stages of old age, and then increases again beginning at age 75

43
Q

Is suicide common in children?

A

No it is infrequent however it has been increasing over the years

44
Q

Are children too young to understand suicide?

A

No, it is proven that young children who commit suicide are clearly aware of what death is and are clear on their wish to die

45
Q

How common is suicide among children (those under 18)

A

It is the second leading cause of death with accidents being the first

46
Q

Why are young adults and teenage suicide rates so high?

A
  • Increase in competition for jobs, colleges, academic and athletic honors which has led to increased shattered dreams and ambitions
  • weakening ties to the family
  • easy availability of alcohol and drugs and the pressure to use them
47
Q

What is important to know plays a role in elderly suicide?

A

Clinical depression

48
Q

Treatments and Prevention of Suicide

A
  • Crisis center intervention
  • Suicide Hotline
  • The Trevor Lifeline (LGBTQ)
  • applying the principles of mindfulness-based cognitive-behavioral therapy
  • dialectical behavior therapy
49
Q

How do people on the phone help?

A
  • Understand and clarify the problem
  • assess suicide potential
  • assess and mobilize the caller’s resources
  • formulate a plan
50
Q

Do suicide prevention programs work?

A
  • It’s hard for researchers to say due to the fact that there are multiple different types of prevention programs each with its own type of procedures
  • people who are thinking of suicide or tried to commit suicide are also not very truthful
51
Q

Self Injury implicit association test

A

if they plan to attempt suicide this cognitive test instructs them to pair various suicide words with words that are personally relevant and with words not personally relevant