clinical 7 final

Chapter 7: Suicide 

• Schneidman’s 4 kinds of Suicidal People:

  • Death seeker:

    • Clearly intend to end their lives

  • Death initiator: 

    • Have the mindset: if I am going to die anyway, what is the point in living now. 

  • Death ignorer:

    • Don’t believe that suicide will end their existance. (Afterlife) More common in religious people. 

  • Death darer: Mixed feelings about their intent to die, but do risky actions to make the choice for them.

• Demographics of Suicide:

  • Religious people have lower suicide rates

  • More women attempt suicide than men 

  • More men sucesfully kill themselves than women 

  • Transgender people have higher rates of suicide.

  • White people are more likely to die by suicide than racial minorities  

  • Indian people are the most likely to kill themselves. 

    • This is due to their accessibility to guns, high rates of alcoholism and modeling.

  • Among hispanics, Puerto Ricans are most likely to commit suicide 

  • Likelihood of suicide steadily increases with age through middle years 

  • Likelihood of suicide decreases during the early stage of old age. 

  • Likelihood of suicide increases again at age 75.

• Durkheim’s sociocultural view of suicide : Argues that how attached one is to social, family, and cultural, community groups impacts likelihood. 

  • Egoistic suicide: consequence of the deterioration of social and familial bonds, underinvolvement in society

  • Altruistic suicide: trying to help others - sacrifice, overinvolvement in society 

  • Anomic suicide: society fails them, disillusionment and disappointment 

• Interpersonal theory: if the person has negative interpersonal-psychological beliefs, they may kill themselves. (thinking they’re a burden…)  

• Biological perspective on suicide:

  • lack of serotonin, depression-related brain circuit dysfunction

  • Suicidal people may be aggressive/impulsive

• Treatment of Suicide: 

  • Treatment occurs after an unsuccessful attempt

    • Most need medical care, and may have brain damage

    • Supplementally, psychotherapy and drug therapy may begin

    • CBT is particularly helpful for suicide treatment