Download I. Introduction: Understanding Psychological Disorders

I. Introduction: Understanding Psychological Disorders
Psychopathology is the scientific study of the origins, symptoms, and
development of psychological disorders.
1. Critical Thinking: Are People with a Mental Illness as
Violent as the Media Portray Them?
a. People with mental disorders are often depicted on TV
as helpless victims or evil villains who are unpredictable,
dangerous, and violent.
b. One study indicated that, overall, former mental
patients did not have a higher rate of violence than a
matched comparison group.
c. People with severe mental disorders who are
experiencing
bizarre delusional ideas and hallucinated voices do have
a slightly higher level of violent and illegal behavior than
do “normal” people.
d. “. . . there is very little risk of violence or harm to a
stranger from casual contact with an individual who has a
mental isorder.”
A. What Is a Psychological Disorder?
1. A psychological disorder or mental disorder is a pattern of
behavioral and psychological symptoms that causes significant
personal stress, impairs the ability to function in one or more
important areas of daily life, or both.
2. DSM-IV-TR is the abbreviation for the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text
Revision, which was published by the American Psychiatric
Association in 2000. It describes the specific symptoms and
diagnostic guidelines for 250 or so specific psychological
disorders. The DSM-IV-TR provides mental
health professionals with
a. a common language for labeling mental disorders, and
b. comprehensive guidelines for diagnosing mental
disorders.
3. The DSM-IV-TR represents the consensus of a wide range of
mental health professionals and organizations.
B. The Prevalence of Psychological Disorders: A 50–50 Chance?
1. In 1994, two surprising findings were provided by the
National Comorbidity Survey (NCS):
a. The prevalence of psychological disorders was much
higher than previously thought: 48 percent of adults
surveyed had experienced
the symptoms of a psychological disorder at some point
in their lifetime.
b. Eighty percent of those with the symptoms of a
psychological disorder in the previous year had not
sought any type of treatment.
2. There are two ways to view these findings:
a. Many people who could benefit from mental health
treatment do not seek it.
b. Most people seem to weather the symptoms without
becoming completely debilitated and without
professional intervention.
3. The NCS also found that the prevalence of certain mental
disorders differed for men and women.
a. Women had a higher prevalence of anxiety and
depression.
b. Men had a higher prevalence of substance abuse
disorders and antisocial personality disorder.
II. Anxiety Disorders: Intense Apprehension and Worry
Anxiety is an unpleasant emotional state characterized by physical arousal
and feelings of tension, apprehension, and worry.
1. Anxiety puts us on physical alert, preparing us to defensively
“fight” or “flee” potential dangers, and on mental alert, making
us focus our attention squarely on the threatening situation.
2. In anxiety disorders, the anxiety is maladaptive, disrupting
everyday activities, moods, and thought processes.
3. Three features distinguish normal anxiety from pathological
anxiety. Pathological anxiety is
a. irrational—it is provoked by perceived threats that are
exaggerated or nonexistent, and the anxiety response is
out of proportion to the actual importance of the
situation.
b. uncontrollable—the person can’t shut off the alarm
reaction even when he or she knows it’s unrealistic.
c. disruptive—it interferes with relationships, job or
academic performance, or everyday activities.
A. Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Worrying About Anything and
Everything
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by excessive,
global, and persistent symptoms of anxiety; it is sometimes referred to
as free-floating anxiety.
B. Panic Attacks and Panic Disorder: Sudden Episodes of Extreme
Anxiety
1. A panic attack is a sudden episode of extreme anxiety that
rapidly escalates in intensity. Panic disorder is an anxiety
disorder in which the person experiences frequent and
unexpected panic attacks.
2. Explaining panic disorder
Both biological and psychological causes seem to be
implicated.
a. Panic disorder tends to run in families.
b. People with panic disorder are unusually sensitive to
the signs of physical arousal.
c. According to the cognitive-behavioral theory of panic
disorder, people with panic disorder tend to misinterpret
the physical signs of arousal as catastrophic and
dangerous. After their first panic attack, they become
even more attuned to physical changes, increasing the
likelihood of future panic attacks.
3. Other cultures have reported syndromes resembling panic
disorder. One example is ataque de nervios, which also is
characterized by hysteria.
C. The Phobias: Fear and Loathing
1. A phobia is a strong or irrational fear of something, usually a
specific object or situation, that does not necessarily interfere
with the ability to function in daily life.
2. Specific phobia (formerly called simple phobia) is
characterized by an extreme and irrational fear of a specific
object or situation that interferes with the ability to function in
daily life. Generally, the objects or situations that produce
specific phobias tend to fall into four categories:
a. Fear of particular situations—flying, driving, tunnels,
bridges, elevators, crowds
b. Fear of features of the natural environment—heights,
water, thunderstorms
c. Fear of injury or blood—injections, needles, medical
or dental procedures
d. Fear of animals and insects—snakes, spiders, dogs,
cats, slugs, bats
3. Agoraphobia involves the extreme and irrational fear of
experiencing a panic attack in a public situation and being
unable to escape or get help.
4. Social phobia (or social anxiety disorder) involves the
extreme and irrational fear of being embarrassed, judged, or
scrutinized by others in social situations. In the Japanese
culture, taijin kyofusho is similar except the person worries that
he or she will somehow offend, insult, or embarrass other
people.
5. Explaining phobias: Learning theories
a. Classical conditioning may be involved in the
development of a specific phobia that can be traced back
to some sort of traumatic event. People with specific
phobias may have developed a conditioned response of
fear to a conditioned stimulus that has generalized
to similar stimuli.
b. Operant conditioning can be involved in the avoidance
behavior that characterizes phobias. People with phobias
may have been negatively reinforced by the relief from
anxiety or fear associated with avoiding the object or
situation.
c. Observational learning can be involved in the
development of phobias. People with phobias may have
observed and modeled the fearful reactions of others.
d. Humans seem biologically prepared to acquire fears of
certain animals and situations that were survival threats
in human evolutionary history.
D. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Reexperiencing the Trauma
1. In posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic and
persistent symptoms of anxiety develop in response to an
extreme physical or psychological trauma, such as military
combat, natural disasters, physical or sexual assault, random
shooting sprees, or terrorist attacks. In a given year, more than
5 million American adults experience PTSD.
2. Three core symptoms characterize PTSD.
a. Frequent, intrusive recall of the event
b. Avoidance of stimuli or situations that tend to trigger
memories of the experience and a general numbing of
emotional responsiveness
c. Increased physical arousal associated with anxiety
3. Several factors influence the likelihood of a person’s
developing PTSD, which even well-adjusted people and
psychologically healthy people can do.
a. A personal or family history of psychological disorders
b. The magnitude of the trauma
c. Experiencing multiple traumas
E. Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder: Checking It Again . . . and Again
1. In obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), the symptoms of
anxiety are triggered by intrusive, repetitive thoughts and urges
to perform certain actions.
a. Obsessions are repeated, intrusive, and uncontrollable
irrational thoughts or mental images that cause extreme
anxiety and distress.
b. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts
that are performed to prevent or reduce anxiety. They
may be
(1) Overt physical behaviors, such as repeatedly
washing your hands.
(2) Covert mental behaviors, such as counting or
reciting certain phrases to yourself.
2. Many people with obsessive–compulive disorder have the
irrational belief that failure to perform the ritual action will lead
to catastrophe or disaster.
3. People may experience obsessions or compulsions, but more
commonly they experience both.
4. Obsessions and compulsions take a similar shape in different
cultures around the world, but the content seems to mirror the
specific culture’s concerns and beliefs.
5. Although researchers are far from a full understanding of the
causes of obsessive–compulsive disorder, biological factors
seem to be involved.
a. A deficiency in the neurotransmitter serotonin.
b. Dysfunction in specific brain areas, such as the frontal
lobes and the caudate nucleus, which is involved in
regulating movements.
III. Mood Disorders: Emotions Gone Awry
Mood disorders (also called affective disorders) are a category of mental
disorders in which significant and persistent disruptions in mood or
emotions
cause impaired cognitive, behavioral, and physical functioning.
A. Major Depression: “Like Some Poisonous Fogbank”
1. Major depression is characterized by extreme and persistent
feelings of despondency, worthlessness, and hopelessness,
causing impaired emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and physical
functioning.
a. Depression is often accompanied by the physical
symptoms of anxiety.
b. Suicide is always a potential risk.
c. Abnormal sleep patterns are another hallmark of major
depression.
2. To be diagnosed with major depression, a person must
display most of the symptoms described in Figure 14.3 for two
weeks or longer.
3. Dysthymic disorder
a. Dysthymic disorder involves chronic, low-grade
feelings of depression that produce subjective discomfort
but do not seriously impair the ability to function.
b. Some people with dysthymic disorder experience
double depression, characterized by one or more
episodes of major depression
on top of their ongoing dysthymia.
4. The prevalence and course of major depression
a. Often called “the common cold” of psychological
disorders, major depression is the most common of all
the psychological disorders.
It affects some 13 to 14 million Americans annually.
b. Women’s lifetime risk of major depression is one in
four; men’s lifetime risk is one in eight. This is because
women experience a greater degree of chronic stress,
have a lesser sense of personal control, and are more
prone to dwell on their problems.
c. Left untreated, depression may recur and become
progressively more severe.
5. In seasonal affective disorder (SAD), episodes of
depression typically occur during the autumn and winter and
subside during the spring and summer.
B. Bipolar Disorder: An Emotional Roller Coaster
1. Bipolar disorder involves periods of incapacitating
depression alternating with periods of extreme euphoria and
excitement; formerly called manic depression.
2. A manic episode is a sudden, rapidly escalating emotional
state characterized by extreme euphoria, excitement, physical
energy, and rapid thoughts and speech.
a. For most people with bipolar disorder, a manic episode
immediately precedes or follows a bout with major
depression.
b. During a manic episode, people sleep very little and
display boundless energy; wildly inflated self-esteem;
grandiose ideas, all of which may represent delusional, or
false, beliefs; and flight of ideas.
c. Because the ability to function during a manic episode
is severely impaired, hospitalization is usually required.
3. Some people experience cyclothymic disorder, which is
characterized by moderate but frequent mood swings for two
years or longer that are not severe enough to qualify as bipolar
disorder.
4. The prevalence and course of bipolar disorder
a. Onset typically occurs in the person’s early twenties,
affecting about 2 million Americans annually.
b. For both men and women, the lifetime risk is about 1
percent.
c. In the vast majority of cases, bipolar disorder is a
recurring mental disorder; a small percentage of people
with the disorder display rapid cycling, experiencing four
or more manic or depressive episodes every year.
C. Explaining Mood Disorders
Multiple factors appear to be involved in the development of mood
disorders.
1. Family, twin, and adoption studies suggest that some people
inherit a genetic predisposition to mood disorders.
2. Disruption of the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and
serotonin have been implicated in the development of major
depression.
Antidepressants lift the symptoms of depression by increasing
the availability of these neurotransmitters.
3. Abnormal levels of glutamate may be involved in bipolar
disorder. Lithium effectively eliminates symptoms of both
mania and depression.
4. Major depression is often triggered by traumatic and stressful
events. Chronic stress can also produce major depression. There
is some evidence that stressful life events also play a role in the
course of bipolar disorder.
5. Critical Thinking: Does Smoking Cause Depression and
Other Psychological Disorders?
a. People with mental illnesses are nearly twice as likely
to smoke cigarettes as people with no mental illness.
b. One possible explanation is that people with a mental
illness smoke as a form of self-medication: Nicotine
affects multiple brain structures and neurotransmitters,
the same ones that are directly involved in many different
mental disorders.
c. Another explanation suggests that smoking triggers the
onset of symptoms in people who are probably already
vulnerable to the development of a mental disorder,
especially major depression.
IV. Eating Disorders: Anorexia and Bulimia
Eating disorders involve serious and maladaptive disturbances in eating
behavior.
1. The two types of eating disorders, anorexia nervosa and
bulimia nervosa, usually begin in adolescence.
2. Ninety to 95 percent of people with eating disorders are
female.
A. Anorexia Nervosa: Life-Threatening Weight Loss
1. The four key features of anorexia nervousa are
a. a 15 percent below normal body weight can drop to 12
or lower,
b. extreme fear of gaining weight or becoming fat,
despite being dangerously overweight,
c. a distorted perception about one’s body size, and
d. denial of how serious one’s weight loss is.
2. Anorexia disrupts body chemistry in ways similar to those
caused by starvation.
3. People with anorexia are commonly perfectionistic, exhibit
rigid thinking, have poor peer relationships, and experience
social isolation as well as low self-esteem.
B. Bulimia Nervosa: Bingeing and Purging
1. Like people with anorexia, those with bulimia nervosa fear
gaining weight and are intensely preoccupied and unhappy with
their bodies.
2. Unlike people with anorexia, those with bulimia are within a
normal weight range or may even be slightly overweight; they
also typically know they have an eating disorder.
3. People with bulimia experience extreme episodes of binge
eating, which
a. typically occur twice a week.
b. are typically secret.
c. are compensated for—to prevent weight gain—by
purging, fasting, r excessive exercise that also serve to
relieve guilt, shame, and self-disgust.
C. Causes of Eating Disorders
1. Multiple factors are implicated in eating disorders, such as
a. genetic factors.
b. decreased activity of the neruotransmitter serotonin.
c. disruption of chemical signals that normally regulate
eating behavior.
d. contemporary attitudes exalting thinness and dieting.
V. Personality Disorders: Maladaptive Traits
A. Personality disorders are characterized by inflexible, maladaptive
patterns of thoughts, emotions, behavior, and interpersonal
functioning that are stable over time and across situations and deviate
from the expectations of the individual’s culture. Ten distinct
personality disorders are categorized into three basic clusters:
1. the odd, eccentric cluster
2. the dramatic, emotional, erratic cluster
3. the anxious, fearful cluster
B. Paranoid Personality Disorder: Pervasive Distrust and
Suspiciousness
Paranoid personality disorder is characterized by a pervasive
distrust and suspiciousness of the motives of others without sufficient
basis.
1. About 3 percent of the general population displays this
disorder, which occurs more frequently in men.
2. Other characteristics include a belief that others are out to
exploit, harm, or dupe them; inappropriate outbursts of anger; a
strong tendency to blame others for their own shortcomings;
and pathological jealousy in intimate relationships.
3. There is not much research on what causes this disorder;
however, it tends to co-occur with schizotypal and avoidant
personality disorders.
C. Antisocial Personality Disorder: Violating the Rights of Others
Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a pervasive
pattern of disregarding and violating the rights of others; such
individuals are often referred to as psychopaths or sociopaths.
1. Evidence of this personality pattern is often seen in
childhood or early adolescence when a child has repeated runins with the law or school authorities. Such behavior is typically
diagnosed as conduct disorder.
2. Deceiving and manipulating others for one’s own personal
gain is another hallmark of antisocial personality disorder.
3. People with antisocial personality disorder are contemptuous
about the feelings or rights of others, blaming the victim for his
or her own stupidity.
4. By middle to late adulthood, the antisocial tendencies tend to
diminish.
D. Borderline Personality Disorder: Chaos and Emptiness
Borderline personality disorder is characterized by instability of
interpersonal relationships, self-image, and emotions and marked
impulsivity.
1. It is the most commonly diagnosed personality disorder.
2. Other characteristics include a pervasive feeling of
emptiness, a desperate fear of abandonment, and selfdestructiveness.
3. Many borderline patients (in the United States, 75 percent are
women) have experienced physical, sexual, or emotional abuse
in childhood or a disruption in attachment relationships in early
childhood.
VI. The Dissociative Disorders: Fragmentation of the Self
Dissociative disorders are a category of psychological disorders in which
extreme and frequent disruptions of awareness, memory, and personal
identity
impair the ability to function.
1. A dissociative experience is a break or disruption in
consciousness during which awareness, memory, and personal
identity become separated or divided.
2. Mild dissociative experiences are quite common and
completely normal.
A. Dissociative Amnesia and Fugue: Forgetting and Wandering
1. Dissociative amnesia involves the partial or total inability to
recall important personal information.
2. Dissociative fugue involves sudden and unexpected travel
away from home, extensive amnesia, and identity confusion.
3. Both dissociative amnesia and dissociative fugue are
associated with traumatic events or stressful periods.
B. Dissociative Identity Disorder: Multiple Personalities
1. Dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as
multiple personality disorder, involves extensive memory
disruptions along with the presence of two or more distinct
identities, or “personalities.”
a. Alternate personalities, often called alters or alter
egos, may be of widely varying ages and different
genders.
b. Alters seem to embody different aspects of the
individual’s personality that cannot be integrated into the
primary personality. At different times, different alters
take over.
c. Symptoms of amnesia and memory problems are
reported in virtually all cases of DID. Commonly, the
person is unable to recall her behavior during specific
time periods.
d. People with DID typically have numerous other
psychiatric and physical problems along with a chaotic
personal history.
e. Not all mental health professionals are convinced that
DID is a genuine psychological disorder.
2. Explaining dissociative identity disorder
a. According to one explanation, DID represents an
extreme form of dissociative coping brought on by
suffering trauma in childhood—often extreme physical or
sexual abuse.
b. Although widely accepted among therapists, the
dissociative coping theory is difficult to test
empirically—largely due to problems
with the reliability of childhood memories.
VII. Schizophrenia: A Different Reality
Schizophrenia is a psychological disorder in which the ability to function
is impaired by severely distorted beliefs, perceptions, and thought processes.
A. Symptoms of Schizophrenia
1. Categories of symptoms
a. Positive symptoms reflect excesses or distortions of
normal functioning and include delusions, hallucinations,
and severely disorganized thought processes, speech, and
behavior.
b. Negative symptoms reflect defects or deficits in
normal functioning, including flat affect, alogia, and
avolition.
2. Focus on Neuroscience: The Hallucinating Brain
PET scans that recorded the brain activity of a person with
schizophrenia as he hallucinated revealed acitivity in the left
auditory and visual areas of his brain, but not in the frontal
lobe, the area involved in organized thought processes.
3. Positive symptoms
a. A delusion is a falsely held belief that persists in spite
of compelling contradictory evidence.
(1) Delusions of reference—the person believes
that other people are constantly talking about her
or that everything that happens is somehow related
to her.
(2) Delusions of grandeur—the person believes
she is extremely important, powerful, or wealthy.
(3) Delusions of persecution—the person believes
that others are plotting against or trying to harm
her or someone close to her.
b. Hallucinations are false or distorted perceptions that
seem vividly real to the person experiencing them.
c. Other positive symptoms of schizophrenia include
disturbances in sensation, thinking, and speech.
d. Culture and Human Behavior: Travel Advisory: The
JerusalemSyndrom This syndrome is described as a
psychotic break that involves religious delusions and
hallucinations. Usually, people suffering
from this syndrome have a history of serious mental
disorders, such as previous episodes of schizophrenia or
bipolar disorder.
4. Negative symptoms
a. Flat affect, or affective flattening—the person shows a
dramatic reduction in emotional responsiveness and
facial expressions.
b. Alogia—greatly reduced production of speech.
c. Avolition—the inability to initiate or persist in even
simple forms of goal-directed behaviors.
B. Types of Schizophrenia
DSM-IV-TR includes three basic subtypes of schizophrenia:
paranoid, catatonic, and disorganized.
1. The paranoid type is characterized by the presence of
delusions, hallucinations, or both, but virtually no cognitive
impairment, disorganized behavior, or negative symptoms.
2. The catatonic type is marked by highly disturbed movements
or actions, including bizarre postures or grimaces, extremely
agitated behavior, complete immobility, and waxy flexibility.
3. The disorganized type (formerly called hebephrenic
schizophrenia) is characterized by extremely disorganized
behavior, disorganized speech, and flat affect.
4. The label undifferentiated type is used when an individual
displays some combination of positive and negative symptoms
that does not clearly fit the criteria for the paranoid, catatonic,
or disorganizedtypes.
C. The Prevalence and Course of Schizophrenia
1. The onset of schizophrenia typically occurs during young
adulthood.
2. Worldwide, about 1 percent of the population will experience
at least one episode of schizophrenia at some point in life.
3. The course of schizophrenia is marked by enormous
individual variability.
a. About one-quarter of those who experience an episode
of schizophrenia recover completely; another one-quarter
experience recurrent episodes, but often with only
minimal impairment of functioning.
b. However, in the other one-half, schizophrenia becomes
a chronic mental illness, and the ability to function
normally may be severely impaired.
D. Explaining Schizophrenia
The causes of schizophrenia seem to be extremely complex.
1. Evidence from family, twin, and adoption studies has firmly
established the role of genetic factors in many cases of
schizophrenia.
a. Family studies: Schizophrenia tends to cluster in
certain families.
b. Family and twin studies: The more closely related a
person is to someone who has schizophrenia, the greater
the risk that she will be diagnosed with schizophrenia at
some point in her lifetime.
c. Adoption studies: If either biological parent of an
adopted individual has schizophrenia, the adopted
individual is at greater risk to develop schizophrenia.
d. Identical twin studies: There is an almost 50 percent
risk rate for a person whose identical twin has
schizophrenia. Obviously, nongenetic factors must play a
role in explaining this finding.
2. Paternal age: Older fathers and the risk of schizophrenia
a. Because schizophrenia often occurs in individuals with
no family history of mental disorders, no genetic model
explains all the patterns of schizophrenia.
b. One explanation is that new cases of schizophrenia
arise from genetic mutations carried in the sperm of the
biological fathers, especially older fathers.
c. Researchers in Jerusalem reviewed data on 87,000
people and found that paternal age was a strong and
significant predictor of the schizophrenia diagnosis.
(Mother’s age appeared to play no role.)
d. Paternal age failed to account for three-quarters of the
cases of schizophrenia.
3. Environmental factors: The viral infection theory
a. According to this theory, exposure to a viral infection
during prenatal development or early infancy affects the
developing brain, making the individual more vulnerable
to schizophrenia later in life.
b. There is growing evidence to support this theory:
People whose mothers were exposed to a flu virus during
the first trimester of pregnancy and people born in the
winter and spring months show an increased rate of
schizophrenia.
4. Abnormal brain structure: Loss of gray matter
a. About half of the people with schizophrenia will show
some type of brain structure abnormality.
b. The most consistent finding has been the enlargement
of the fluid-filled cavities, called ventricles, located deep
within the brain.
c. Focus on Neuroscience: Schizophrenia: A Wildfire in
the Brain Neuroscientists have mapped brain structure
changes in normal adolescents and adolescents with
early-onset schizophrenia.
(1) Over the five-year study, gray matter loss
ranged from about 1 percent in the normal teens to
more than 5 percent in the schizophrenic teens.
(2) Psychotic symptoms increased most in those
who lost the greatest quantity of gray matter.
(3) The pattern of loss mirrored the progression of
neurological and cognitive deficits: loss in the
temporal lobes was associated with more severe
positive symptoms, and loss in the frontal lobes
with more severe negative symptoms.
d. The kinds of brain abnormalities seen in schizophrenia
are also seen in other mental disorders. Also, researchers
don’t know if brain abnormalities are the cause or
consequence of schizophrenia.
5. Abnormal brain chemistry: The dopamine hypothesis
a. According to the dopamine hypothesis, schizophrenia
is related to, and may be caused by, excessive activity of
the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain.
b. Two pieces of indirect evidence support this
hypothesis.
(1) Antipsychotic drugs that reduce or block
dopamine activity in the brain reduce
schizophrenic symptoms in many people.
(2) Drugs such as amphetamines or cocaine that
enhance dopamine activity in the brain can
produce schizophrenialike symptoms.
c. Although it seems likely that dopamine is somehow
involved in schizophrenia, its exact role is unclear.
6. Psychological factors: Unhealthy families
Individuals who are genetically predisposed to develop
schizophrenia may be more vulnerable to the effects of
disturbed family environments.
a. The Finnish Adoptive Family Study of Schizophrenia
found that children whose biological mother had
schizophrenia had a much higher rate of schizophrenia
than did the control group when they were raised in a
psychologically disturbed adoptive family. When raised
in a psychologically healthy adoptive family, they
were no more likely than the control group to develop
schizophrenia.
b. One-third of the adopted children with no genetic
history of schizophrenia developed symptoms of a
serious psychological disorder if they were raised in a
psychologically disturbed family environment.
c. The conclusion from this study is that a healthy
psychological environment may counteract a person’s
inherited vulnerability for schizophrenia, but a
psychologically unhealthy family environment
can act as a catalyst for the onset of schizophrenia.
VIII. Application: Understanding and Helping to Prevent Suicide
A. Who commits suicide?
1. Each year, 500,000 people require emergency room
treatment as a result of attempted suicide.
2. In 2002, suicide was the 11th leading cause of death, while
homicide ranked 14th.
3. Women outnumber men by three to one in the number of
suicide attempts. Men outnumber women by better than four to
one in suicide deaths.
4. Although the suicide rate in young people has increased by
almost 300 percent over the last four decades, the highest
suicide rate consistently occurs in those age 75 and above.
B. What risk factors are associated with suicidal behavior?
1. Feelings of hopelessness and social isolation
2. Recent relationship problems or a lack of significant
relationships
3. Poor coping and problem-solving skills
4. Poor impulse control and impaired judgment
5. Rigid thinking or irrational beliefs
6. A major psychological disorder, especially depression,
bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia
7. Alcohol or other substance abuse
8. Childhood physical or sexual abuse
9. Prior self-destructive behavior
10. A family history of suicide
11. Presence of a firearm in the house
C. Why do people attempt or commit suicide?
1. Some people choose suicide in order to escape the pain of a
chronic illness or the slow, agonizing death of a terminal
disease.
2. Others commit suicide because of feelings of hopelessness,
depression, guilt, rejection, failure, humiliation, or shame.
D. How can you help prevent suicide?
Suggestions for helping a friend who is feeling hopeless and suicidal
include
1. Actively listen as the person talks and vents her feelings.
2. Don’t deny or minimize the person’s suicidal intentions.
3. Identify other potential solutions.
4. Ask the person to delay his decision.
5. Encourage the person to seek professional help.