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We can reduce suicide with enforced treatment and eyesight supervision
The old man was restrained at the last moment from jumping off the hospital’s fifth floor atrium parapet. He was suffering from terminal cancer and had been racked with chronic, severe pain for months.
The consult recognized symptoms of depression arising from his continuous physical suffering, advising that a male aide be dispatched to sit with the man and that he be put on a regimen of 10 mg of methadone twice a day to alleviate the pain. The following day the man was calm; he no longer wanted to kill himself. He expressed a strong desire to go home, return to gardening, and to play with his grandchildren.
Most of the 47,000 suicides that occur in the United States every year are preventable.1 Our national policy on this front has been nothing short of an abject failure. The government implemented a system with limited effect on completed suicides – a telephone hotline. This hotline is not called by the most common suicide victims: male, old, and quiet.2
The consequences of this national policy disaster have been profound, resulting in the biggest loss of productive years of life for any fatal condition.3 The grief experienced by the families of those who commit suicide is far greater than normal bereavement: The cause of death of their loved ones was not an unfortunate accident or a disease, it was an intentional act, and families take it personally.
One of the greatest achievements of psychiatry during the 20th century was the lowering of suicide rates in prisons by 70% with no treatment, no additional staffing, and no additional expenditures of funds. Today if inmates threaten suicide, they are immediately placed under eyesight supervision by guards. The federal pamphlet that describes this protocol was published in 1995 and is freely available online.4
Half of all suicide attempts are made by individuals who are legally drunk.5 Watch them for 6 hours and then ask them if they want to kill themselves and the response will almost invariably be “Of course not,” with the risk of further attempts dissipating in step with their blood alcohol level. The best resources to provide this kind of intervention are responsible adult family members, at no cost to the government. Indeed, in many cases family supervision is superior to that provided by a locked psychiatric ward with three staff members chasing after 20 agitated people all night long. The one-on-one attention that a family member can provide is free as well as far more personal and insightful, and more sincerely caring.
Guarantees in the field of medicine are rare. But, one such guarantee is that after their mood has improved, 100% of people will be thankful that they did not hurt themselves.6 This means that successful treatment will prevent 100% of all suicides.7 Not all treatments are successful, but 95% can be.8 At autopsy, few successful suicide victims have psychiatric medications in their system.9 The urge to kill oneself might best be characterized as a temporary chemical alteration of the brain causing delusional thoughts, including the ultimate delusion that life is not worth living.10 This alteration suppresses the strongest, most fundamental urge of all, namely, the survival instinct.
We must overturn the catastrophic decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that requires the showing of a dangerous act and the holding of a trial employing at least three lawyers for involuntary commitment to be authorized. Rather, involuntary treatment is justified by medical necessity as determined by two licensed professionals with no conflicts of interest. It can be outpatient.
The Supreme Court’s decision in O’Connor v. Donaldson in 1975 remedied an illusory wrong, addressing an act of blatant malpractice, not policy inequity.11 The superintendent of the state facility in that case was not even a doctor. He kept O’Connor prisoner for more than a decade, perhaps to keep a bed filled. Over the past half-century, this one decision has resulted in 1 million preventable suicides12 and half a million senseless murders by paranoid individuals, including many rampage shootings.13
More than two-thirds of homeless individuals suffer from an untreated mental condition.14 The vast majority of them will refuse all offers of treatment because they also have anosognosia, a brain-based disorder causing denial of illness.15 By referring to these individuals as “homeless,” we are also lowering real estate values for a square block around where they happen to be camped out. That cost has never been calculated, but it is another real consequence of this devastating Supreme Court decision.16
Detractors and mental health rights activists may argue that individual rights cannot be infringed. In that case, those same detractors and mental health rights activists must take responsibility for the thousands of lives and billions of dollars in economic damage caused by their refusal to allow an effective solution to the suicide epidemic to be implemented. Enforced outpatient treatment by the U.S. Air Force dropped its suicide rate by 60%. As an unintended benefit, the murder rate dropped by 50%.17
It is high time we did so.
Dr. Behar is a psychiatrist in Lower Merion, Pa. He graduated from Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1975, and has had postgraduate training at SUNY Stony Brook, University of Iowa, the National Institute of Mental Health, and Columbia University. His practice focuses on difficult, treatment-resistant cases.
References
1. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicide Prevention. 2020.
2. Luoma JB et al. Contact with mental health and primary care providers before suicide: A review of the evidence. Am J Psychiatry. 2002 Jun 1. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.159.6.909.
3. World Health Organization. Suicide. 2021 Jun 17.
4. National Institute of Corrections. Correctional suicide prevention: Policies and procedures. 1995.
5. Hufford MR. Alcohol and suicidal behavior. Clin Psychol Rev. 2001 Jul;21(5):797-811.
6. Stanley B and Brown GK. Safety planning intervention: A brief intervention to mitigate suicide risk. Cogn Behav Pract. 2012 May;19(2):256-64.
7. Ibid.
8. Brown GK and Jager-Hyman S. Evidence-based psychotherapies for suicide prevention: Future directions. Am J Prev Med. 2014 Sep;47(3 Suppl 2):S186-94.
9. Isometsä ET. Psychological autopsy studies – A review. Eur Psychiatry. 2001 Nov;16(7):379-85.
10. Van Orden KA et al. The interpersonal theory of suicide. Psychol Rev. 2010 Apr; 117(2):575-600.
11. O’Connor v. Donaldson, 422 U.S. 563 (1975).
12. Calculated based on annual suicide statistics from the CDC and the time elapsed since the Supreme Court decision in O’Connor v. Donaldson.
13. Metzl JM and MacLeish KT. Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms. Am J Public Health. 2015 Feb;105(2):240-9.
14. Fazel S et al. The prevalence of mental disorders among the homeless in western countries: Systematic review and meta-regression analysis. PLoS Med. 2008 Dec 2;5(12):e225.
15. Amador XF and David AS. (eds.) Insight and psychosis: Awareness of illness in schizophrenia and related disorders (2nd ed.). Oxford Univ Press. 2004.
16. Calculated based on the potential impact of homelessness on property values and the relationship between untreated mental illness and homelessness.
17. Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch. Surveillance snapshot: Manner and cause of death, active component, U.S. Armed Forces, 1998-2015. Medical Surveillance Monthly Report. 2016 Apr;23(4):19.
The old man was restrained at the last moment from jumping off the hospital’s fifth floor atrium parapet. He was suffering from terminal cancer and had been racked with chronic, severe pain for months.
The consult recognized symptoms of depression arising from his continuous physical suffering, advising that a male aide be dispatched to sit with the man and that he be put on a regimen of 10 mg of methadone twice a day to alleviate the pain. The following day the man was calm; he no longer wanted to kill himself. He expressed a strong desire to go home, return to gardening, and to play with his grandchildren.
Most of the 47,000 suicides that occur in the United States every year are preventable.1 Our national policy on this front has been nothing short of an abject failure. The government implemented a system with limited effect on completed suicides – a telephone hotline. This hotline is not called by the most common suicide victims: male, old, and quiet.2
The consequences of this national policy disaster have been profound, resulting in the biggest loss of productive years of life for any fatal condition.3 The grief experienced by the families of those who commit suicide is far greater than normal bereavement: The cause of death of their loved ones was not an unfortunate accident or a disease, it was an intentional act, and families take it personally.
One of the greatest achievements of psychiatry during the 20th century was the lowering of suicide rates in prisons by 70% with no treatment, no additional staffing, and no additional expenditures of funds. Today if inmates threaten suicide, they are immediately placed under eyesight supervision by guards. The federal pamphlet that describes this protocol was published in 1995 and is freely available online.4
Half of all suicide attempts are made by individuals who are legally drunk.5 Watch them for 6 hours and then ask them if they want to kill themselves and the response will almost invariably be “Of course not,” with the risk of further attempts dissipating in step with their blood alcohol level. The best resources to provide this kind of intervention are responsible adult family members, at no cost to the government. Indeed, in many cases family supervision is superior to that provided by a locked psychiatric ward with three staff members chasing after 20 agitated people all night long. The one-on-one attention that a family member can provide is free as well as far more personal and insightful, and more sincerely caring.
Guarantees in the field of medicine are rare. But, one such guarantee is that after their mood has improved, 100% of people will be thankful that they did not hurt themselves.6 This means that successful treatment will prevent 100% of all suicides.7 Not all treatments are successful, but 95% can be.8 At autopsy, few successful suicide victims have psychiatric medications in their system.9 The urge to kill oneself might best be characterized as a temporary chemical alteration of the brain causing delusional thoughts, including the ultimate delusion that life is not worth living.10 This alteration suppresses the strongest, most fundamental urge of all, namely, the survival instinct.
We must overturn the catastrophic decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that requires the showing of a dangerous act and the holding of a trial employing at least three lawyers for involuntary commitment to be authorized. Rather, involuntary treatment is justified by medical necessity as determined by two licensed professionals with no conflicts of interest. It can be outpatient.
The Supreme Court’s decision in O’Connor v. Donaldson in 1975 remedied an illusory wrong, addressing an act of blatant malpractice, not policy inequity.11 The superintendent of the state facility in that case was not even a doctor. He kept O’Connor prisoner for more than a decade, perhaps to keep a bed filled. Over the past half-century, this one decision has resulted in 1 million preventable suicides12 and half a million senseless murders by paranoid individuals, including many rampage shootings.13
More than two-thirds of homeless individuals suffer from an untreated mental condition.14 The vast majority of them will refuse all offers of treatment because they also have anosognosia, a brain-based disorder causing denial of illness.15 By referring to these individuals as “homeless,” we are also lowering real estate values for a square block around where they happen to be camped out. That cost has never been calculated, but it is another real consequence of this devastating Supreme Court decision.16
Detractors and mental health rights activists may argue that individual rights cannot be infringed. In that case, those same detractors and mental health rights activists must take responsibility for the thousands of lives and billions of dollars in economic damage caused by their refusal to allow an effective solution to the suicide epidemic to be implemented. Enforced outpatient treatment by the U.S. Air Force dropped its suicide rate by 60%. As an unintended benefit, the murder rate dropped by 50%.17
It is high time we did so.
Dr. Behar is a psychiatrist in Lower Merion, Pa. He graduated from Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1975, and has had postgraduate training at SUNY Stony Brook, University of Iowa, the National Institute of Mental Health, and Columbia University. His practice focuses on difficult, treatment-resistant cases.
References
1. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicide Prevention. 2020.
2. Luoma JB et al. Contact with mental health and primary care providers before suicide: A review of the evidence. Am J Psychiatry. 2002 Jun 1. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.159.6.909.
3. World Health Organization. Suicide. 2021 Jun 17.
4. National Institute of Corrections. Correctional suicide prevention: Policies and procedures. 1995.
5. Hufford MR. Alcohol and suicidal behavior. Clin Psychol Rev. 2001 Jul;21(5):797-811.
6. Stanley B and Brown GK. Safety planning intervention: A brief intervention to mitigate suicide risk. Cogn Behav Pract. 2012 May;19(2):256-64.
7. Ibid.
8. Brown GK and Jager-Hyman S. Evidence-based psychotherapies for suicide prevention: Future directions. Am J Prev Med. 2014 Sep;47(3 Suppl 2):S186-94.
9. Isometsä ET. Psychological autopsy studies – A review. Eur Psychiatry. 2001 Nov;16(7):379-85.
10. Van Orden KA et al. The interpersonal theory of suicide. Psychol Rev. 2010 Apr; 117(2):575-600.
11. O’Connor v. Donaldson, 422 U.S. 563 (1975).
12. Calculated based on annual suicide statistics from the CDC and the time elapsed since the Supreme Court decision in O’Connor v. Donaldson.
13. Metzl JM and MacLeish KT. Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms. Am J Public Health. 2015 Feb;105(2):240-9.
14. Fazel S et al. The prevalence of mental disorders among the homeless in western countries: Systematic review and meta-regression analysis. PLoS Med. 2008 Dec 2;5(12):e225.
15. Amador XF and David AS. (eds.) Insight and psychosis: Awareness of illness in schizophrenia and related disorders (2nd ed.). Oxford Univ Press. 2004.
16. Calculated based on the potential impact of homelessness on property values and the relationship between untreated mental illness and homelessness.
17. Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch. Surveillance snapshot: Manner and cause of death, active component, U.S. Armed Forces, 1998-2015. Medical Surveillance Monthly Report. 2016 Apr;23(4):19.
The old man was restrained at the last moment from jumping off the hospital’s fifth floor atrium parapet. He was suffering from terminal cancer and had been racked with chronic, severe pain for months.
The consult recognized symptoms of depression arising from his continuous physical suffering, advising that a male aide be dispatched to sit with the man and that he be put on a regimen of 10 mg of methadone twice a day to alleviate the pain. The following day the man was calm; he no longer wanted to kill himself. He expressed a strong desire to go home, return to gardening, and to play with his grandchildren.
Most of the 47,000 suicides that occur in the United States every year are preventable.1 Our national policy on this front has been nothing short of an abject failure. The government implemented a system with limited effect on completed suicides – a telephone hotline. This hotline is not called by the most common suicide victims: male, old, and quiet.2
The consequences of this national policy disaster have been profound, resulting in the biggest loss of productive years of life for any fatal condition.3 The grief experienced by the families of those who commit suicide is far greater than normal bereavement: The cause of death of their loved ones was not an unfortunate accident or a disease, it was an intentional act, and families take it personally.
One of the greatest achievements of psychiatry during the 20th century was the lowering of suicide rates in prisons by 70% with no treatment, no additional staffing, and no additional expenditures of funds. Today if inmates threaten suicide, they are immediately placed under eyesight supervision by guards. The federal pamphlet that describes this protocol was published in 1995 and is freely available online.4
Half of all suicide attempts are made by individuals who are legally drunk.5 Watch them for 6 hours and then ask them if they want to kill themselves and the response will almost invariably be “Of course not,” with the risk of further attempts dissipating in step with their blood alcohol level. The best resources to provide this kind of intervention are responsible adult family members, at no cost to the government. Indeed, in many cases family supervision is superior to that provided by a locked psychiatric ward with three staff members chasing after 20 agitated people all night long. The one-on-one attention that a family member can provide is free as well as far more personal and insightful, and more sincerely caring.
Guarantees in the field of medicine are rare. But, one such guarantee is that after their mood has improved, 100% of people will be thankful that they did not hurt themselves.6 This means that successful treatment will prevent 100% of all suicides.7 Not all treatments are successful, but 95% can be.8 At autopsy, few successful suicide victims have psychiatric medications in their system.9 The urge to kill oneself might best be characterized as a temporary chemical alteration of the brain causing delusional thoughts, including the ultimate delusion that life is not worth living.10 This alteration suppresses the strongest, most fundamental urge of all, namely, the survival instinct.
We must overturn the catastrophic decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that requires the showing of a dangerous act and the holding of a trial employing at least three lawyers for involuntary commitment to be authorized. Rather, involuntary treatment is justified by medical necessity as determined by two licensed professionals with no conflicts of interest. It can be outpatient.
The Supreme Court’s decision in O’Connor v. Donaldson in 1975 remedied an illusory wrong, addressing an act of blatant malpractice, not policy inequity.11 The superintendent of the state facility in that case was not even a doctor. He kept O’Connor prisoner for more than a decade, perhaps to keep a bed filled. Over the past half-century, this one decision has resulted in 1 million preventable suicides12 and half a million senseless murders by paranoid individuals, including many rampage shootings.13
More than two-thirds of homeless individuals suffer from an untreated mental condition.14 The vast majority of them will refuse all offers of treatment because they also have anosognosia, a brain-based disorder causing denial of illness.15 By referring to these individuals as “homeless,” we are also lowering real estate values for a square block around where they happen to be camped out. That cost has never been calculated, but it is another real consequence of this devastating Supreme Court decision.16
Detractors and mental health rights activists may argue that individual rights cannot be infringed. In that case, those same detractors and mental health rights activists must take responsibility for the thousands of lives and billions of dollars in economic damage caused by their refusal to allow an effective solution to the suicide epidemic to be implemented. Enforced outpatient treatment by the U.S. Air Force dropped its suicide rate by 60%. As an unintended benefit, the murder rate dropped by 50%.17
It is high time we did so.
Dr. Behar is a psychiatrist in Lower Merion, Pa. He graduated from Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1975, and has had postgraduate training at SUNY Stony Brook, University of Iowa, the National Institute of Mental Health, and Columbia University. His practice focuses on difficult, treatment-resistant cases.
References
1. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicide Prevention. 2020.
2. Luoma JB et al. Contact with mental health and primary care providers before suicide: A review of the evidence. Am J Psychiatry. 2002 Jun 1. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.159.6.909.
3. World Health Organization. Suicide. 2021 Jun 17.
4. National Institute of Corrections. Correctional suicide prevention: Policies and procedures. 1995.
5. Hufford MR. Alcohol and suicidal behavior. Clin Psychol Rev. 2001 Jul;21(5):797-811.
6. Stanley B and Brown GK. Safety planning intervention: A brief intervention to mitigate suicide risk. Cogn Behav Pract. 2012 May;19(2):256-64.
7. Ibid.
8. Brown GK and Jager-Hyman S. Evidence-based psychotherapies for suicide prevention: Future directions. Am J Prev Med. 2014 Sep;47(3 Suppl 2):S186-94.
9. Isometsä ET. Psychological autopsy studies – A review. Eur Psychiatry. 2001 Nov;16(7):379-85.
10. Van Orden KA et al. The interpersonal theory of suicide. Psychol Rev. 2010 Apr; 117(2):575-600.
11. O’Connor v. Donaldson, 422 U.S. 563 (1975).
12. Calculated based on annual suicide statistics from the CDC and the time elapsed since the Supreme Court decision in O’Connor v. Donaldson.
13. Metzl JM and MacLeish KT. Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms. Am J Public Health. 2015 Feb;105(2):240-9.
14. Fazel S et al. The prevalence of mental disorders among the homeless in western countries: Systematic review and meta-regression analysis. PLoS Med. 2008 Dec 2;5(12):e225.
15. Amador XF and David AS. (eds.) Insight and psychosis: Awareness of illness in schizophrenia and related disorders (2nd ed.). Oxford Univ Press. 2004.
16. Calculated based on the potential impact of homelessness on property values and the relationship between untreated mental illness and homelessness.
17. Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch. Surveillance snapshot: Manner and cause of death, active component, U.S. Armed Forces, 1998-2015. Medical Surveillance Monthly Report. 2016 Apr;23(4):19.