Religion and Support for Suicide Attacks

21 Feb 2009

In a new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologists Jeremy Ginges and Ian Hansen from the New School for Social Research along with psychologist Ara Norenzayan from the University of British Columbia conducted a series of experiments investigating the relationship between religion and support for acts of parochial altruism, including suicide attacks. Suicide attacks are an extreme form of “parochial altruism” – they combine a parochial act (the attacker killing members from other groups) with altruism (the attacker sacrificing themselves for the group).

While the relationship between religion and popular support for suicide attacks is a topic of frequent conjecture, scientific study of the relationship is rare. The researchers found that the relationship between religion and support suicide attacks is real but is unrelated to devotion to particular religious beliefs or religious belief in general. Instead, collective religious ritual appears to facilitate parochial altruism in general and support for suicide attacks in particular.

The researchers surveyed Palestinian Muslims about their attitudes towards religion, including how often they prayed and went to mosque. The researchers found that devotion to Islam, as measured by prayer frequency, was unrelated to support for suicide attacks. However, frequency of mosque attendance did predict support for suicide attacks. In a separate survey of Palestinian Muslim university students, the researchers found again that those who attended mosque more than once a day, were more likely to believe that Islam requires suicide attacks, compared to students who attended mosque less often.

A similar pattern of results was found in research carried out with other religious groups. In another experiment, the researchers conducted phone surveys with Israeli Jews living in the West Bank and Gaza and asked them either how frequently they attended synagogue or how often they prayed to God. All participants were then asked if they supported the perpetrator of a suicide attack against Palestinians. Analysis of the responses showed that 23% of those asked about synagogue attendance supported suicide attacks while only 6% of those queried about prayer frequency supported suicide attacks.

In the last experiment, the psychologists surveyed members of six religious majorities in six nations (Mexican Catholics, Indonesian Muslims, Israeli Jews, Russian Orthodox in Russia, British Protestants and Indian Hindus) to see if the relationship between attending religious services and support for acts of parochial altruism holds up across a variety of political and cultural contexts. These results also showed that support for parochial altruism was related to attendance at religious services, but unrelated to regular prayer.

This study indicates that religious devotion does not cause support for suicide attacks or other forms of parochial altruism. However, the findings suggest that regularly attending religious services may make individuals more prone to supporting acts of parochial altruism. The researchers theorize that collective religious rituals and services create a sense of community among participants and enhance positive attitudes towards parochially altruistic acts such as suicide attacks. Although, the researchers note, the greater sense of community, developed via religious services, may have many positive consequences. They observe, “Only in particular geopolitical contexts is the parochial altruism associated with such commitments translated into something like suicide attacks.”

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Psychological Science is ranked among the top 10 general psychology journals for impact by the Institute for Scientific Information.

Article: “Religion and Support for Suicide Attacks”

Source: Barbara Isanski
Association for Psychological Science

Filed under: Suicide, Violence, trauma

Risk Factors For Suicidal Events Found Among Adolescents With Treatment-Resistant Depression

19 Feb 2009
Family conflict, drug or alcohol use and pre-existing suicidal thoughts were the strongest predictors of suicidal events among adolescents whose depression treatment was changed after a lack of response to a previous medication.

The findings were reported today in the article “Predictors of Spontaneous and Systematically Assessed Suicidal Adverse Events in the Treatment of SSRI-Resistant Depression in Adolescents (TORDIA) Study,” at AJP in Advance, the online advance edition of The American Journal of Psychiatry (AJP), the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association.

In the study, 334 adolescent patients who had not responded to a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) were switched to a different SSRI or to venlafaxine, with or without cognitive-behavioral therapy. Forty-eight patients experienced a suicidal event-suicidal ideation (new or worsening), a suicidal threat or a suicide attempt. The median time from a suicidal threat to a suicidal event was three weeks. In the AJP article, lead author David Brent, M.D., and colleagues recommend careful monitoring of more severely depressed adolescent patients who have high levels of suicidal thoughts or family conflict.

Treatments that target family conflict and emotion regulation early may help reduce suicidal events. Likewise, since the predictors of suicidal events also predict poor treatment response, targeting family conflict, suicidal ideation and drug use may hasten response and help to reduce the incidence of these events. TORDIA is sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health. Any other funding the authors may have received is disclosed in the article itself.

The American Journal of Psychiatry is the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association. Statements in this press release or the articles in the Journal are not official policy statements of the American Psychiatric Association.

About the American Psychiatric Association

The American Psychiatric Association is a national medical specialty society whose more than 38,000 physician members specialize in diagnosis, treatment, prevention and research of mental illnesses, including substance use disorders. Visit the APA at http://www.psych.org and http://www.HealthyMinds.org.

Filed under: Other Mental Health, Suicide , Suicide, young people, depression, family conflict, substance-misuse

Suicide & Self-Harm – Individual Places Available on Course in Nottingham

There are still a few places available on the “Razor’s Edge” course in Nottingham. If you are interested, the course is on 23-24th March 2009 and is organised by Nottingham HLG. You can book via the HLG website:

http://www.hlg.org.uk/trainingsubmit.htm

Or contact HLG’s Training Co-ordinator on 0115 956 5313 or email admin@hlg.org.uk

Information about the course can be found at:

http://www.hlg.org.uk/TrngRazEdge.htm

Filed under: Impact Training, Suicide, self-harm , impa, self-harm, Suicide

Suicide is rare among young children, but they’re not immune

- February 06, 2009

Feb. 6–The death of a 10-year-old boy found hanging this week in an Evanston school bathroom demonstrates that even the youngest aren’t immune from taking their lives, mental health experts said Thursday.

Though rare, suicide is the sixth-leading cause of death among children ages 5 to 14. Among ages 15 to 24, it’s the third leading cause, said Dr. Louis Kraus, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center.

Most children by age 8 understand the permanence of death but do not appreciate the consequences of their actions, he said.

“The majority of kids that kill themselves don’t intend to actually kill themselves,” Kraus said. “It’s something impulsive. It’s out of anger or frustration.”

What Aquan Lewis intended when he walked into the Oakton Elementary School bathroom Tuesday remains unknown.

The 5th grader, described as a happy child who loved sports and enjoyed school, reportedly told a teacher who scolded him that he would harm himself the same day his body was discovered hanging from the hook of a stall door, according to sources familiar with the case. A source said Aquan had psychiatric problems. His mom, Angel Marshall, said her son never harmed himself or acted suicidal.

State Rep. Mary Flowers (D-Chicago) plans to introduce a bill next week that would mandate suicide prevention training for all educators statewide. Current law requires training in secondary schools but not for elementaries.

Evanston-Skokie School District 65 teachers get annual training in abuse, neglect and suicide prevention, a spokeswoman said.

Author Paul Raeburn, who has written extensively on childhood psychiatric disorders, contends suicide is almost always a symptom of mental illness.

“Adults will ask ‘why?’ The answer in almost all cases is ‘because he was sick,’ ” Raeburn said.

Tribune reporters Susan Kuczka and Ofelia Casillas contributed.

tmalone@tribune.com

brubin@tribune.com

Filed under: Suicide

Army suicides at record high, passing civilians

- January 29, 2009

WASHINGTON – Stressed by war and long overseas tours, U.S. soldiers killed themselves last year at the highest rate on record, the toll rising for a fourth straight year and even surpassing the suicide rate among comparable civilians. Army leaders said they were doing everything they could think of to curb the deaths and appealed for more mental health professionals to join and help out.

At least 128 soldiers committed suicide in 2008, the Army said Thursday. And the final count is likely to be even higher because 15 more suspicious deaths are still being investigated.

“Why do the numbers keep going up? We cannot tell you,” said Army Secretary Pete Geren. “We can tell you that across the Army we’re committed to doing everything we can to address the problem.”

It’s all about pressure and the military approach, said Kim Ruocco, 45, whose Marine husband was an officer and Cobra helicopter pilot who hanged himself in a California hotel room in 2005. That was one month before he was to return to Iraq a second time.

She said her husband, John, had completed 75 missions in Iraq and was struggling with anxiety and depression but felt he’d be letting others down if he sought help and couldn’t return.

“He could be any Marine because he was highly decorated, stable, the guy everyone went to for help,” Ruocco said in a telephone interview. “But the thing is … the culture of the military is to be strong no matter what and not show any weakness.”

Ruocco, of Newbury, Mass., was recently hired to be suicide support coordinator for the nonprofit Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. She said she feels that the military has finally started to reach out to suicide survivors and seek solutions.

“Things move slowly, but I think they’re really trying,” Ruocco said.

At the Pentagon on Thursday, Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a psychiatric consultant to the Army surgeon general, made a plea for more professionals to sign on to work for the military.

“We are hiring and we need your help,” she said.

Military leaders promised fresh prevention efforts will start next week.

The new suicide figure compares with 115 in 2007 and 102 in 2006 and is the highest since current record-keeping began in 1980. Officials expect the deaths to amount to a rate of 20.2 per 100,000 soldiers, which is higher than the civilian rate – when adjusted to reflect the Army’s younger and male-heavy demographics – for the first time in the same period of record-keeping.

Officials have said that troops are under unprecedented stress because of repeated and long tours of duty due to the simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yearly increases in suicides have been recorded since 2004, when there were 64 – only about half the number now. Officials said they found that the most common factors were soldiers suffering problems with their personal relationships, legal or financial issues and problems on the job.

But the magnitude of what the troops are facing in combat shouldn’t be forgotten, said Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., a former Navy vice admiral, who noted he spoke with a mother this week whose son was preparing for his fifth combat tour.

“This is a tough battle that the individuals are in over there,” Sestak said. “It’s unremitting every day.”

Said Dr. Paul Ragan, an associate professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University and a former Navy psychiatrist: “Occasional or sporadic visits by military mental health workers are like a Band-Aid for a gushing wound.”

The statistics released Thursday cover soldiers who killed themselves while they were on active duty – including National Guard and Reserve troops who had been activated.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the suicide rate for U.S. society overall was about 11 per 100,000 in 2004, the latest year for which the agency has figures. But the Army says the civilian rate is more like 19.5 per 100,000 when adjusted.

An earlier report showed the Marine Corps recorded 41 possible or confirmed suicides in 2008 – about 19 per 100,000 troops.

The military’s numbers don’t include deaths after people have left the services. The Department of Veterans Affairs tracks those numbers and says there were 144 suicides among the nearly 500,000 service members who left the military from 2002-2005 after fighting in at least one of the two ongoing wars.

On the Net:

Army suicide prevention http://www.armyg1.army.mil/HR/suicide/default.asp

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Filed under: Suicide, Violence, trauma , army, Suicide, trauma, war

Razors Edge – Working with People who Self-Harm – 5 Places in Nottingham

This course hosted by Nottingham HLG is being held on Mon 23 & Tues 24 March 2009. Currently there are 5 places left. If you are interested go to:

http://www.hlg.org.uk/TrngRazEdge.htm

or book at

Email: admin@hlg.org.uk Online:http://www.hlg.org.uk/trainingsubmit.htm Phone: 0115 8599525

Filed under: Impact Training, Suicide , Iain Bourne, Impact Training, Nottingham, Razor's Edge, self-harm, Suicide

Changing Suicide Rates

Figures released by the ONS showed that the number of people in the UK committing suicide is continuing to fall and is now at its lowest level in 17 years.

The ONS said that, in 2007, there were 5,377 suicides in adults aged 15 and over, 177 fewer than in 2006 and 940 fewer than in 1991. Three-quarters of the suicides in 2007 were by men – a proportion that has remained fairly constant since 1991.

The suicide rate for men in 2007 was 16.8 per 100,000 people, while the rate for women was five per 100,000. Suicides among men reached a peak in 1998 – 21.1 per 100,000 – but the rate has since fallen. Suicide rates among women have been consistently much lower and have decreased more steadily.

In the early 1990s, the highest suicide rates for men and women were in those aged 75 and over. Rates in this group have since decreased and were among the lowest in 2007.

In recent years, the highest suicide rates in men have been in those aged 15-44, while the highest rates among women have been in the 45-74 age bracket. Suicide rates in women aged 15-44 have consistently been the lowest and fell to 4.2 per 100,000 in 2007.

Filed under: Suicide, Uncategorized , Office of National Statistics, Suicide, suicide rates

The truth behind prison suicides

A fall last year in the number of prisoners taking their own lives is good news, but while we continue to jail mentally ill people the problem will continue, says Erwin James

A young prisoner at Ashield young offenders’ institution.

‘Sixty-one suicides in a year is as unacceptable as 100′, says Erwin James.

“There is never any room for complacency in our work to prevent these deaths,” said justice minister Shahid Malik in response to the fall in the number of people in prison taking their own lives in 2008. The drop from an average of 91 self-inflicted deaths per year over the previous three years to just 61 last year is noteworthy. (In 2007 eight women took their lives in prisons; only one woman took her life in custody last year.)

Staff vigilance has to be one reason for the lower figure. Prison staff rarely receive good press and it is easy to forget the significant number of prison officers who actually enjoy their job for the right reasons, and who care about the vulnerable people they have to supervise. Another reason has to be the army of volunteers who give their time to those who are struggling with their prison situation, particularly the Samaritans.

The Samaritans managed to get a foothold into our prisons after 15-year-old Philip Knight hanged himself in his cell in Swansea prison in 1990. Kathy Biggar, former vice-chairwoman of the “Sams”, and Jim Heyes, the then governor of Swansea jail, came up with the idea of the Listener scheme, whereby groups of prisoners are trained by the Samaritans to provide listening ears for fellow prisoners in distress.

The scheme was so successful that it was expanded throughout the prison system, so that today one key performance indicator (KPI) in every prison in the country is the provision and quality of its Listener scheme. Most prisons now get at least one visit a month from their local Samaritans who give on going support and training to the Listeners and to prison staff if requested. The relationship that has developed between the Samaritans and our prisons is one of the best social initiatives to have emerged over the past 15 years.

So a bit of good news for the prison service at last. But 61 people dead in a year in our prisons by their own hands is as unacceptable as 100. And let’s bear in mind this figure will have little impact on the overall statistics regarding the likelihood of self-inflicted deaths in prison unless it can be sustained for a few years. The suicide rate for men in prison is five times higher than for men in the community. Women in prison are 36 times more likely to take their own lives than women in the community. And a study published in 2003 found that 72% of those who took their own lives in prison had a history of mental disorder (over half had symptoms suggestive of mental disorder at reception into prison).

Four years ago the then minister for prisons, Paul Goggins, reported in a debate that 20% of all prisoners in the UK had four of the five major mental health disorders.

I used to think that suicide in prison was the ultimate means of empowerment. Prison engenders intense feelings of helplessness. Living with limited choices, little control or responsibility, and shouldering the opprobrium of society can make you feel backed into a corner. In those circumstances, it might not seem to be a totally irrational act. Most people who go to prison contemplate suicide, even if only fleetingly. The evidence shows however that the majority of people who carry it through are mentally unwell. Mr Malik made no mention of that fact. The reality is that the only way to sustain a relatively low prison suicide rate is to address our complacency about jailing mentally ill people.

Filed under: Suicide, Uncategorized , prisons, Suicide, suicide rates

The facts about suicide are far less alarming than the media portray

Oliver James, The Guardian, Saturday 24 January 2009

A completed suicide casts a long, dark shadow on families. Yet there is much misinformation about who is at risk and how common it is. Many parents will, I hope, find the facts reassuring. The first myth is that suicide is increasing. Actually, it has been falling for many years: from 6,129 cases in 1994 to 5,576 in 2006, with the decline in numbers occurring almost annually.

The second myth is that it is a young person’s plague. Virtually no children under 14 do it (22 a year, albeit 22 too many) and the total for 15-34-year-olds is 1,400. While it may be the second largest cause of death in 15-24-year-olds (car accidents being the highest), that is because hardly any in this age group die. The real increase in suicide has been in the 35-64-year-olds, up 15% from 2,950 to 3,400.

The third and most widely touted myth is that suicide has become an epidemic among young men, totemic of a “crisis in masculinity”. In 1994, there were 1,850 in the 15-34-year-old male age group, dropping steadily year on year down to 1,200 in 2006. In other words, the real story is that suicide by young men has fallen by over one third.

What is true is that, in much of the world, men outnumber women in completed suicide. In this country, it is at least three times more men. However, this is not some biological given – there are many cultures in which women exceed men. One of the most suicidal groups on earth, for example, is rural middle-aged Chinese women.

It is a curiosity of suicide statistics that the gender differences for those who attempt it are almost exactly the reverse of those who complete it: women are much more likely to deliberately self-harm than men. Superficially, the explanation is that men tend to use much more fatal methods, like hanging or jumping off high buildings, whereas women take ineffective overdoses. However, that prompts the question of why, to which there are as yet no satisfactory answers.

In most developed nations, women are twice as likely as men to be depressed. We know from psychological autopsies that the great majority of people who killed themselves were depressed. That makes it all the stranger that relatively fewer women die this way. A possible factor is that men abuse substances much more than women (about twice as much) – women are more likely to visit their GP and accept pills or therapy. It’s possible that the disinhibition of booze or drugs means men are more likely to take extreme measures to end their lives.

But the remarkably reassuring fact is that only one in 50 young people who attempt suicide dies: 24,000 people aged 10-19 attempt it each year, at least three quarters of them female, but fewer than 500 die. Even allowing for a great many pleas for help, you would have thought that a higher proportion than this would end in tragedy.

All in all, if you are a parent the facts about suicide are a great deal less worrying than the tosh you read in many newspapers. Just as we are
encouraged to fantasise about creepy strangers making off with our little
girls when this is so rare that it is not worth giving the time of day to, so with suicide: forget your teenage Smiths fan for whom the GP wants to prescribe antidepressants: if anything, the person you should worry about is any 35-64-year-old man in the household.

For information about suicide go to samaritans.org/your_emotional_health/about_suicide.aspx.

Filed under: Suicide, Uncategorized , media, Suicide, suicide rates

“Razor’s Edge” Course in Nottingham

Dealing with Suicide and Self-Harm, faciltated by Iain Bourne on 22nd and 23rd March and organised by Nottingham HLG (Kevin O’Connor). Follow the link below:

http://www.hlg.org.uk/training.htm

But be quick, there’s only one place left!

Filed under: Impact Training, Suicide , attempted suicide, self-harm, suicidal behaviour, Suicide