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Stress response increases suicide risk

by Medindia Content Team on Sep 17 2001 3:29 PM

Psychological responses to stress may cause significant problems including suicidal impulses. It is well-known that some people respond to major stressors - like war and natural calamities with a full-blown crisis known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) where there is emotional numbness, panic and anxiety. And even lesser stressful events, like having an operation, can precipitate PTSD in some people.

Researchers at the California Psychiatric Institute now reveal that there are lesser degrees of PTSD, which may be overlooked. And these are linked with significant psychological disability. Those affected have some - but not all - of the PTSD symptoms.

The presence of these symptoms is serious, for it's linked with a higher than average incidence of suicidal thoughts. Where people have full-blown PTSD, suicidal thoughts are three times more likely than in the general population. It's a sign that stress symptoms of the PTSD type should be taken very seriously, because thoughts of suicide are too often put into practice.


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