Complication+of+Suicide

Suicide has often been a topic which goes undiscussed even though it is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and a significant public health issue (Gonda et al., 2012). As a result of becoming such a taboo topic, certain important aspects of suicide go unnoticed such as the fact that many people who complete or attempt suicide are suffering from Bipolar Disorder. The presence of mental illness is the leading predictor of suicide risk and among those mental illnesses, a major depressive episode can be found in 56%-87% of suicide cases (Gonda et al., 2012). Amongst the anxiety disorders in the DSM, bipolar disorder patients are at the highest risk for suicide. The suicide attempt rates in the bipolar population is 1400/100 000 which is 30 to 60 times higher than the general population (Gonda et al., 2012). Furthermore, merely looking at the bipolar population, 1000 among every 100 000 people diagnosed with the disorder will attempt suicide at least once on an annual basis (Gonda et al., 2012). What is most concerning about these numbers is the success rate of the bipolar population. Suicide occurs at the rate of once to every three to four tries in people who have been diagnosed with the disorder (Gonda et al., 2012). To put this into perspective, in the general population, successful suicides occur at a rate of once every 30 times (Gonda et al., 2012).

There are a number of common characteristics in this population which are risk factors for suicide. Similar to general population statistics, women diagnosed with bipolar disorder are more likely to report suicide attempts than men diagnosed with the disorder (Gonda et al., 2012). A possible explanation for this is that women with bipolar disorder more frequently report major depressive episodes. In addition, men with bipolar disorder have a higher risk of fatality from suicide than women who have been diagnosed, which is also similar to general population findings (Gonda et al., 2012).

Another common characteristic and the largest predictor of forthcoming suicide attempts are previous attempts. A concerning statistic is that once a bipolar patient attempts suicide, there is a very high likelihood that they will attempt it again. In fact, once the first attempt is made, the likelihood of another attempt increases by 1.5 to 2.5 times. Although it has been shown that bipolar patients are at high risk for suicide, the probability of suicide fluctuates depending on what mood episode the individual is in. The most threatening time for suicide is during “severe, pure, or mixed depressive episodes” (Gonda et al., 2012, p. 19). At this stage of the disorder, an astounding 78%-89% of patients will attempt or complete suicide (Gonda et al., 2012). Also, suicide attempts are regular during the first depressive episode and during the early phases of the disorder (Gonda et al., 2012). During mixed affective episodes these rates drop to 11%-20% and during states of manic episodes the rates are 0%-7% (Gonda et al., 2012).

In relation to reducing suicides and suicide attempts among the bipolar population, the first step is properly diagnosing them. Patients who go undiagnosed and untreated are at even greater suicide risk than diagnosed patients (Gonda et al., 2012). This can be linked with the fact that patients who go untreated suffer from an increased incidence of depressive episodes.