Abstract
In 2018, more than 48,000 people committed suicide in the United States, which amounts to approximately 129 deaths per day. The rate of suicidality has been increasing for the last decade and in the last 20 years, incidence has risen about 30%. Worldwide, approximately 800,000 people die from suicide every year. The etiology of suicidality is multidetermined, with a preponderance of suicides resulting from various acts of interpersonal violence. Throughout history, diverse societies have exhibited many different attitudes toward suicidality, with rare mention of its definite links to varied forms of violence.
This chapter explores potent risk factors for suicide that directly or indirectly involve violence and abuse, such as domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, sex trafficking, school bullying, cyber bullying, and in general, those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of interpersonal violence. Recent neuroimaging studies found that there are similarities in the brain between decision-making circuits for patients with suicidal ideation and PTSD patients (Barredo J, Aiken E, Wout-Frank M, Greenberg B, Carpenter L, Philip N, Front Psychiat 10(44), 2019). Furthermore, there exists evidence of strong correlations between risks for suicidality and risks for potentially violent behaviors, including firearm prevalence, gang membership, self-harm, and physical fighting. Throughout history, there have been many cases where suicide has been employed as a vehicle for violence, as with murder-suicides in family settings, and war-time suicides. Section “Future Research” focuses on risk mitigation factors. Applications of these topics for both assessment and prevention efforts are presented in order to slow down the current rising trends in suicidality, as well as reduce other forms of interpersonal violence. It is clear that suicide is not only an act of violence toward the self, but also an act that may be rooted in often results from violent and abusive behaviors.
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Levittan, M. (2022). Suicidality and Interpersonal Violence. In: Geffner, R., White, J.W., Hamberger, L.K., Rosenbaum, A., Vaughan-Eden, V., Vieth, V.I. (eds) Handbook of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Across the Lifespan. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89999-2_330
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