One in four suicide attempts is actually linked to visual, auditory or olfactory hallucinations, which are much more common than you might think.
To prevent more suicides, a new therapeutic path has opened up. One in four attempts is actually linked to hallucinations, according to a search recently published in the JAMA Psychiatry. The behaviors of 84,285 people were analyzed.
“Recent research has shown that psychotic experiences are much more common than psychotic disorders and are associated with a range of mental disorders. A particularly strong association between psychotic experiences and suicidal behavior has also recently been highlighted. light”, indicate the scientists in the preamble.
“Extinguishing Unbearable Pain”
With 200,000 suicide attempts each year and nearly 10,000 deaths, France has one of the highest rates in Europe (10th out of 32). “We now know that the purpose of suicide is not to die but to put an end to suffering, to extinguish pain that has become unbearable. These people are in extreme psychological suffering, often isolated, in a cognitive impasse where they think they have no other solutions than that”, specifies Philippe Courtet, psychiatrist specializing in suicide at the Montpellier University Hospital. “The engine of suicide is to extinguish unbearable pain” and not to die, they summarize.
Researchers have revealed that a quarter of suicide attempts are associated with a malfunction in the way the brain interprets information. It can be visual, olfactory or auditory deformities. Such events are not necessarily associated with mental illnesses, which can occur for example during very strong stress or a change of environment. We then speak of “psychotic experiences” (non-pathological), and not of “psychotic episodes” (pathological).
Prevent at least a quarter of suicide attempts
About 5-7% of the general population say they hear voices from time to time, for example, a figure much higher than previously thought. Dr Ian Kelleher, study leader, comments: “Our research shows that if we can understand and address the factors associated with these perceptual abnormalities, we could prevent at least a quarter of suicide attempts and related deaths. Given that around a million people die of it every year worldwide, that’s a very encouraging prospect.”
These results also highlight the need for special medical attention to patients who report having had a psychotic experience, and to recognize a subtype of suicide linked to psychosis, in order to devote more research to it.
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