As many as one in five children who are at risk of suicide live in homes where they can get hold of guns -- the single most effective means to killing themselves -- researchers reported on Monday.

They said their findings show it’s extremely important to screen children for suicide risk, and to educate parents about how to keep guns out of their hands if they are. And early treatment is also vital.

The researchers, who presented their findings at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Washington, D.C., say they don’t want their results to get mixed up in the current debate over firearms regulation. They just want to keep kids safe.

“A lot of kids, surprisingly, don’t have a history of mental illness but they attempt suicide,” says Dr. Stephen Teach, an emergency room doctor at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Suicide is the No. 3 cause of death for children and youths aged 10 to 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 4,600 kids and young adults kill themselves each year, and 45 percent of them use guns. Another 40 percent suffocate or strangle themselves and 8 percent poison themselves.

Suicide rates are up alarmingly among middle-aged Americans, according to the latest federal government statistics.

They show a 28 percent rise in suicide rates for people aged 35 to 64 between 1999 and 2010.  Rates for children and younger adults, and people over 65, didn’t change much over the same time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.

“Most suicide research and prevention efforts have focused historically on youth and the elderly. This report’s findings suggest that efforts should also address the needs of middle-aged persons,” CDC researchers wrote in the agency’s weekly report in death and disease.

The CDC didn’t look at why suicides might be up. Other reports have shown a link between bad economic times and suicides, although the American Association for Suicidology denies this. The National Bureau of Economic Research says the U.S. experienced a recession from 2007 to 2009.

But the association says unemployment and home foreclosures -- both of which soared during this time and both of which remain high -- do lead to more suicides.

“The findings in this report suggest it is important for suicide prevention strategies to address the types of stressors that middle-aged Americans might be facing and that can contribute to suicide risk,” said Linda Degutis, director of CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

The CDC had already noted a worrying trend for suicides. “Suicide deaths have surpassed deaths from motor vehicle crashes in recent years in the United States. In 2010 there were 33,687 deaths from motor vehicle crashes and 38,364 suicides,” the CDC’s Nimesh Patel and Scott Kegler wrote in their report.

They teased out the data by age and sex and found a clear trend for people who usually are at the height of career and family responsibilities -- those aged 35 to 64. “Annual suicide rates for this age group increased 28 percent over this period (from 13.7 suicides per 100,000 people in 1999 to 17.6 per 100,000 in 2010), with particularly high increases among non-Hispanic whites and American Indians and /Alaska Natives,” they wrote.

They also found an increase in three methods of committing suicide: hanging or suffocation, poisoning and guns.

Men are far more likely than women to commit suicide, but suicide rates rose more for women than for men. Suicide rates increased 32 percent for women and 27 percent for men, CDC said.

“The greatest increases in suicide rates were among people aged 50 to 54 years (48 percent) and 55 to 59 years (49 percent),” the CDC said.

The American Association for Suicidology says economic recessions don’t normally affect suicide rates.

“Although US suicide rates did increase slightly during the years of the Great Depression, reaching a peak rate of 17.4/100,000 in 1933, subsequent US recessions have not been found to lead to increased national rates of suicide in the period of or immediately following each recession,” the group says.

The latest numbers suggest suicide rates for middle-aged Americans now surpass the peak during the Depression. And there’s another possible explanation.

“There is a clear and direct relationship between rates of unemployment and suicide,” the suicidology group says in its statement.

“The peak rate of suicide in 1933 occurred one year after the total US unemployment rate reached 25 percent of the labor force. Similar findings have been documented internationally. At the individual level, unemployed individuals have between two and four times the suicide rate of those employed.”

The group also raises concern about the home foreclosure rate. “More than a million people recently have lost their homes, about as many as did in the Great Depression when the population was about half what it is today. For most Americans, our homes are our primary investment and the locus of our identities and social support systems. When combined with the loss of job, home loss has been found to be one of the most common economic strains associated with suicides.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment peaked at 10 percent in 2009. It’s been above 5 percent since 2008 and is currently around 7.6 percent. Home foreclosures have also soared.

Related:

• Military suicide rate hits record high
• Economy blamed for spike in suicides
• Downturn raises worries about recession's real costs

By Karen Rowan
MyHealthNewsDaily
Children who have autism may be at greater risk for thinking about or attempting suicide than children without the condition, according to a new study. 

Researchers looked at data for about 1,000 children, including 791 kids with an autism spectrum disorder, 186  non-autistic children without a mental condition and 35 non-autistic children with depression. Parents gave numerical ratings describing whether and how frequently their children had contemplated or attempted suicide.

Children with autism were 28 times more likely to be rated as contemplating or attempting suicide "sometimes" to "very often," compared with children who didn't have autism, according to the researchers. However, children with depression were three times more likely to receive these ratings compared to children with autism.

The researchers found a higher risk for children with autism who were black or Hispanic, at least 10 years old, male or from families with lower income levels. "That was probably the most important piece of the study," Angela Gorman, an assistant professor of child psychiatry at Penn State College of Medicine who worked on the research, said in a statement.

In fact, 71 percent of children characterized by all four of those factors had contemplated or attempted suicide. And having more of those four characteristics increased the likelihood that a child had thought about or attempted suicide.

Gorman suggested that parents of children with autism pay close attention to their child's normal behavior and emotions, and work at helping their child develop communication and social skills early in life.

Among children with autism, suicidal contemplation was twice as common in males, although there was no difference between the sexes in suicide attempts, the researchers said.

Depression and behavior problems were highly linked with suicide contemplation and attempts, as were being teased or bullied.

"Out of those kids, almost half of them had suicidal ideation of attempts," Gorman said of the bullied or teased children. "That was pretty significant."

Depression was the strongest single predictor of suicide contemplation or attempts in children with autism. In those children with autism whose parents considered them depressed, 77 percent had contemplated or attempted suicide.

Children with autism who did not have mood or behavioral problems and did not fall into the high-risk categories were very unlikely to have contemplated or attempted suicide, according to the researchers.

Neither cognitive ability nor IQ had much effect on whether or not children with autism contemplated or attempted suicide.

The results were published in the January issue of the journal Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders. The advocacy groups Autism Speaks and the Children's Miracle Network funded the study.

• Hypersex to Hoarding: 7 New Psychological Disorders
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• The Old Drug Talk: 7 New Tips for Today's Parents 

Your spouse is despondent, says life isn’t worth living – and has a gun. What do you do?

It’s a common scenario – suicide rates among young adults increased more than 200 percent over the past 50 years and suicide is the 10^th leading cause of death in the United States, according to federal statistics.

This weekend’s apparent suicide of singer Mindy McCready highlights one other statistic about suicide – people who use guns are far more likely to actually kill themselves than people who attempt suicide using pills, car exhaust or some other method.

“More than 50 percent of suicides in this country are committed using firearms,” says Dr. Liza Gold, a professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical Center. “If you limit the means, you can save people’s lives.”

But getting a gun away from anyone can be difficult, as the recent debate over changes to gun laws can demonstrate. Gold and her colleague Dr. Alan Newman have some pointers for friends, relatives and caregivers of people who might be at risk of suicide and who have access to guns.

“If you have a family member with chronic mental illness, guns should not be accessible to that person,” Gold said in a telephone interview. “People are often ambivalent about committing suicide. They go back and forth, and they are scared, especially if it’s in a moment of crisis. If you can get them through that crisis period, often they can get better.”

With a gun, "there is no second chance," says Gold.

Rule number one – don’t fight over the gun. “Never try to disarm anyone,” she says. “You definitely don’t want to get into a shoving match over a weapon with someone who in distress…and potentially might not be thinking clearly or rationally,” she added.

“If you know the person has access to a weapon, is suicidal, and is not willing to give up the weapon or becomes agitated if you ask for it, back off and call the police immediately. The people most likely to be shot and killed by family members -- with or without mental illness -- are other family members.”

It’s also important not to make the person defensive. Gold recommends using “I” language. “You say, ‘Look, I am worried about you. I love you and I am concerned,’” Gold advises. “You say, ’I would feel better if you would let me take the gun out of the house. I would feel better, would it be okay if I made the gun safe?’”

It is much less threatening, Gold says, than accusations. “If you say, ‘You’re crazy -- give me that gun right now’, people don’t respond well to that kind of approach. Let them know you are worried. Let them know it’s temporary and you are not taking it away from them forever.”

It’s also all right and downright desirable to contact a loved one’s doctor, says Newman. It’s not a violation of doctor-patient confidentiality if the doctor doesn’t reveal anything about the patient.

“A lot of clinicians make a mistake – they have somebody they are giving psychotherapy to or giving medications to and the relationship is all doctor-patient. They don’t communicate with the family,” Newman says.

“In that case, the doctor is pretty much limited to what the patient tells them.” A psychiatrist needs to know if someone who is depressed and potentially suicidal has a way to get hold of a gun.

“If the family wants to give you information, in that case you are not violating confidentiality. You are listening,” Newman says.

Doctors need to be careful in reaching out to family members. “I have seen everything you can imagine, from family members who don’t want the person to get better to family members who are afraid that if they tell you about firearms, the gun may be confiscated,” Newman says.

He advises giving patient and family members alike a plan for keeping the patient safe. “The worst thing is to say to the family right before they leave is to make sure you get rid of the guns. It shouldn’t be an offhand comment,” he said.

And then a doctor needs to check back and make sure the gun has been removed or locked up.

In the worst case, the police are trained to deal with people who are armed and possibly suicidal, and it may be necessary to call them, Newman and Gold both said. “At the end of the process, if you really feel like someone is imminently dangerous – that is the criteria for involuntary detainment in pretty much every state,” Gold says.

“Certainly they will at the very least send a mental health crisis team or a police officer to see what is going on.”

Newman recommends the American Association of Suicidology’s website for more advice. 

 Related stories:

• Country singer McCready dead in apparent suicide
• McCready may have killed dog, too
• Ex-boyfriend says not shocked by McCready suicide
• Half of all gun deaths are suicides 

AP

Dr. Elizabeth Stanley leads a class of U.S. Marines at Camp Pendleton, Calif., as part of a 2011 experiment in using mindfulness to turn down the ongoing internal chatter about the past and future.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- The U.S. Marine Corps, known for turning out some of the military's toughest warriors, is studying how to make its troops even tougher through meditative practices, yoga-type stretching and exercises based on mindfulness.

Marine Corps officials say they will build a curriculum that would integrate mindfulness-based techniques into their training if they see positive results from a pilot project. Mindfulness is a Buddhist-inspired concept that emphasizes active attention on the moment to keep the mind in the present.

Facing a record suicide rate and thousands of veterans seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress, the military has been searching for ways to reduce strains on service members burdened with more than a decade of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Marine Corps officials are testing a series of brain calming exercises called "Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training" that they believe could enhance the performance of troops, who are under mounting pressures from long deployments and looming budget cuts expected to slim down forces.

"Some people might say these are Eastern-based religious practices but this goes way beyond that," said Jeffery Bearor, the executive deputy of the Marine Corps training and education command at its headquarters in Quantico, Va.. "This is not tied to any religious practice. This is about mental preparation to better handle stress."

The School Infantry-West at Camp Pendleton will offer the eight-week course starting Tuesday to about 80 Marines.

The experiment builds on a 2011 study involving 160 Marines who were taught to focus their attention by concentrating on their body's sensations, including breathing, in a period of silence. The Marines practiced the calming methods after being immersed in a mock Afghan village with screaming actors and controlled blasts to expose them to combat stress. Naval Health Research Center scientist Douglas C. Johnson, who is leading the research, monitored their reactions by looking at blood and saliva samples, images of their brains and problem-solving tests they took.

Another 160 other Marines went through the mock village with no mindfulness-based training, acting as the control group. Results from the 2011 study are expected to be published this spring.

The latest study by Johnson will compare three groups of Marines, whose biological reactions will be also monitored. One group of about 80 will receive mindfulness-based training. Another of equal size will be given mental resilience training based on sports psychology techniques. The third one will act as a control group.

Results from that study are expected in the fall, Marine Corps officials said.

Marine Corps officials decided to extend the experiment to shore up evidence that the exercises help the brain better react to high-stress situations and recover more quickly from those episodes.

"If indeed that proves to be the case, then it's our intention to turn this into a training program where Marines train Marines in these techniques," Bearor said. "We would interject this into the entry level training pipeline — we don't know where yet — so every Marine would be trained in these techniques."

The idea is to give Marines a tool so they can regulate their own stress levels before they lead to problem behavior: "We have doctors, counselors, behavioral health scientists, all sorts of people to get help for Marines who have exhibited stress type symptoms but what can we do before that happens? How do we armor Marines up so they are capable of handling stress?" Bearor said.

Lance Cpl. Carlos Lozano participated in the 2011 study, taking the course during his pre-deployment training that also included catapulting from a helicopter in a simulated raid and enduring booming explosions in a mock Afghan village.

Lozano said he and fellow Marines were skeptical at first. Some wondered why their rigorous combat training was being interrupted by a class asking the warfighters to sit in silence and stare at their combat boots, becoming aware of how their feet touched the classroom floor.

"I didn't want to do it," the 21-year-old from Denver said.

But the exercises — also done while standing, stretching and lying down — had an effect, he said. He felt more relaxed and upbeat.

"Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training" or "M-Fit" was designed by former U.S. Army Capt. Elizabeth Stanley, a professor at Georgetown University who found relief doing yoga and meditation for her PTSD.

Stanley, who is also involved in studies for the Army, said the techniques can help warfighters think more clearly under fire when they are often forced to make quick decisions that could mean life or death, and help them reset their nervous systems after being in combat.

Maj. Gen. Melvin Spiese said he was convinced after looking at the scientific research and then taking the course.

While teaching troops to shoot makes them a better warfighter, teaching mindfulness makes them a better person by helping them to decompress, which could have lasting effects, he said.

"As we see the data supports it, it makes perfect sense that this is what we should be doing," said the 58-year-old outgoing general, sitting in his office adorned with pictures of war and a 1903 rifle. "It's like doing pushups for the brain."

Related stories:

Military suicide rate hit record high in 2012

The enemy within: Soldier suicides outpaced combat deaths in 2012

A family healing together: Amid military suicide crisis, TAPS answers the call

By Genevra Pittman
Reuters

About one in 25 U.S. teens has attempted suicide, according to a new national study, and one in eight has thought about it. 

Researchers said those numbers are similar to the prevalence of lifetime suicidal thinking and attempts reported by adults - suggesting the teenage years are an especially vulnerable time.

"What adults say is, the highest risk time for first starting to think about suicide is in adolescence," said Matthew Nock, a psychologist who worked on the study at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The results are based on in-person interviews of close to 6,500 teens in the U.S. and questionnaires filled out by their parents. Along with asking youth about their suicidal thinking, plans and attempts, interviewers also determined which teens fit the bill for a range of mental disorders.

Just over 12 percent of the youth had thought about suicide, and four percent each had made a suicide plan or attempted suicide.

Nock and his colleagues found that almost all teens who thought about or attempted suicide had a mental disorder, including depression, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or problems with drug or alcohol abuse.

More than half of the youth were already in treatment when they reported suicidal behavior. Nock said that was both "encouraging" and "disturbing."

"We know that a lot of the kids who are at risk and thinking about suicide are getting (treatment)," he told Reuters Health. However, "We don't know how to stop them - we don't have any evidence-based treatments for suicidal behavior."

Who is at risk?
Amy Brausch, a psychologist who has studied adolescent self-harm and suicide at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, said the finding shouldn't be interpreted to mean mental health treatment doesn't work for teens. 

"We don't know from this study if they even told their therapist they were having these thoughts, we don't know if it was a focus of the treatment," Brausch, who wasn't involved in the new research, told Reuters Health.

The findings were published this week in JAMA Psychiatry. But they still leave many questions unanswered.

Because most youth who think about suicide never go on to make an actual plan or attempt, doctors need to get better at figuring out which ones are most at risk of putting themselves in danger, according to Nock.

Once those youth are identified, researchers will also have to determine the best way to treat them, he said - since it's clear that a lot of current methods aren't preventing suicidal behavior.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the third leading cause of death for people between age 10 and 24, killing about 4,600 young people annually. 

Although girls are more likely to attempt suicide - a pattern confirmed by Nock's study - boys have higher rates of death by suicide because they typically choose more deadly methods, such as guns.

For parents, Brausch advised keeping open communication with their adolescent and not being afraid to ask about things like depression. They should also pay attention to changes in mood or behavior, she added.

Nock agreed. "For parents, if they suspect their child is thinking about suicide… or talking about death, I would have that child evaluated," he said. 

By Kate Kelland
Reuters

Middle-aged men from disadvantaged backgrounds are 10 times more likely to commit suicide, often because they have lost a sense of identity and masculine pride, researchers said on Thursday.

In a report commissioned by the British helpline charity the Samaritans, health experts explored why men in their 30s, 40s and 50s are at such a substantially higher risk of ending their own lives.

The findings suggest suicide is not simply a mental health problem, the researchers said, but also one of men's place in societies and of societies' inability to adapt to men's needs when trying to deal with depression, anxiety and other problems.

"While suicide is mental health issue.... it is also a social and health inequality issue. This is unjust and unreasonable," said Stephen Platt, a University of Edinburgh health policy research professor and trustee for the Samaritans, who presented the report at a briefing in London

"The differences we are highlighting in this report.. are not ones that any civilised society should be comfortable with."

While the report focused on Britain, the experts behind its findings were relevant to many developed countries across the world, especially those that have experienced a post-industrial shift to service-driven economies

It said that men in mid-life are part of a "buffer" generation, not sure whether to be like their older, more traditional, silent, austere fathers or like their younger, more progressive, individualistic sons.

"The changing nature of the labour market over the last 60 years has affected working class men," it said. "With the decline of traditional male industries, they have lost not only their jobs but also a source of masculine pride and identity."

The World Health Organisation estimates that every year, almost a million people commit suicide - a rate of 16 per 100,000, or one every 40 seconds. It also estimates that for every suicide, there are up to 20 attempted ones.

Men are more likely to commit suicide than women in almost every country in the world, and the WHO says the main risk factors are mental illness - primarily depression - and alcohol abuse, as well as violence, loss, abuse and pressures from cultural and social backgrounds.

The Samaritans study found that in Britain on average about 3,000 middle-aged men from disadvantaged backgrounds kill themselves each year.

Platt described the findings as "shocking" said this high risk group could no longer be ignored.

"Men are often criticised for being reluctant to talk about their problems and for not seeking help," he said.

"With this in mind, we need to acknowledge that men are different to women and design services to meet their needs, so they can be more effective."

A new nationwide strategy to prevent suicides, especially among U.S. military veterans and younger Americans, will tap Facebook Inc as part of a community-driven push to report concerns before someone takes their own life.

The new Facebook service will allow users to report suicidal comments they see online from friends. The website will then send the potential victims an email urging them to call the hotline as well as chat confidentially online with a counselor.

"All too often, people in crisis do not know how - or who - to ask for help," Facebook Global Vice President for Public Policy Marne Levine said in a statement. "We have a unique opportunity to provide the right resources to our users in distress, when and where they need them most."

The effort, announced on Monday, is the first new plan in more than a decade to address what officials say is a growing public health issue and aims to curb deaths over the next 10 years.

"It takes the entire community to prevent suicides. It's not just one individual," says U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin. "We call can play a role."

The plan, which also includes $55.6 million in grant funding for suicide prevention programs, will be released in Washington on Monday by Benjamin, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Army Secretary John McHugh.

Suicide is a growing concern, taking the lives of twice as many people on average as homicide, officials said. They said on average, about 100 Americans take their own lives each day. More than 8 million U.S. adults seriously thought about suicide in the last year, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

U.S. officials are also seeking to increase awareness in other media outlets with several new public service announcements to promote the national suicide prevention line, which is 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Of particular concern are the nation's 23 million veterans.

President Barack Obama has made caring for those who have served in the military a top concern, including tackling mental illness, but it has been a struggle.

Despite his administration's efforts to expand prevention efforts for veterans, including beefing up a special hotline, the number of suicides appear to be growing. There were 17,754 suicide attempts among veterans last year - about 48 a day - up from 10,888 in 2009, data from the Department of Veterans Affairs showed.

"Suicide is one of the most challenging issues we face," McHugh said in a statement. "In the Army, suicide prevention requires soldiers to look out for fellow soldiers. We must foster an environment that encourages people in need to seek help and be supported."

The last major U.S. plan tackling suicide was in 2001. Since then, there has been more research and data about suicide and who is most at risk, as well as the best strategies to reach those people, Benjamin said.

"We now know what we didn't know 15 years ago - or we didn't understand - which is that suicide is preventable. So prevention is where we're focusing now," she said.

"We didn't really talk about suicide much," Benjamin added. "We didn't bring up the idea of suicide. We were afraid it might give someone a new idea. Now we know that it's important to ask 'Have you have suicidal thoughts?' or 'Are you thinking about suicide?' and say if you are, there are ways to get help."

Overall, any new effort that might encourage people to talk about how they are feeling would help, especially if trained experts can quickly reach those at risk, said Cheryl Sharp, who tried to commit suicide nine times between the ages of 13 and 24.

"If you're putting that out on Facebook, you're saying 'I am desperate, and I need help,' but you may not be able to make the phone call," said Sharp, now 55 and a special adviser on trauma-informed services at the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, which represents state and local mental health organizations.

"You don't wait until someone says 'I want to die'. There are things that lead up to that," she said. "There is some way to make some kind of connection, and it's an online connection. I think it's good."

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Jim Watson / AFP - Getty Images

Drought-stricken corn grows on the McIntosh farm in Missouri Valley, Iowa, on Monday, where President Barack Obama visited to inspect conditions.

By Jane J. Lee, LiveScience

Australian scientists have confirmed a disturbing association — the longer a drought drags on, the higher the risk of suicide.

The researchers, who detail their study online today (Aug. 13) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are not certain why bone-dry weather would be linked to suicide. However, they suggest several explanations, including the toll drought takes on farmers as well as on the human psyche. The drought-suicide link was found for rural men living in Australia.

The study results come amidst a historical drought hitting the United States, with many areas currently considered disaster zones.

In the new study, researchers analyzed suicide and drought statistics for the state of New South Wales between 1970 and 2007. Rural men ages 30 to 49 exhibited a 15 percent increase in suicide risk coinciding with longer and longer periods of drought. Younger men ages 10 to 29 living in rural areas also showed an increase in suicide risk, though not as high as the middle-age group.

Women living in rural areas actually exhibited a decreased suicide risk coinciding with increasing drought duration. This surprising finding contradicts a 2002 study that showed women living in rural areas in Australia were more at risk for suicides than rural men, although that study analyzed the time period between 1901 and 1998 and was primarily focused on the association between politics and suicide. [10 Easy Paths to Self Destruction]

Men and women living in urban areas of New South Wales, including Sydney, showed no such link between drought and suicide risk.

"The surprising result for women reinforces the view that suicide is a very complex problem," researcher Ivan Hanigan of the Australian National University in Canberra told LiveScience in an email.  And we're only just beginning to disentangle the various causes at work, he added.

There are several possible explanations for the link between drought and suicide risk, Hanigan and his co-authors note. For one, droughts increase the financial burden on farmers and farming communities due to failing crops. And the psychological toll of having to kill starving livestock or destroy ailing orchards or vineyards that may have taken generations to build should not be underestimated.

With the continental United States withering under the worst drought since 1956, recent heat waves have compounded bone-dry conditions, resulting in a dismal outlook for theU.S. corn and soybean crops. Though Australia is the only country, so far, with studies examining the link between suicide and drought, media reports from India have also speculated on the link between the two and what it means for their farmers.

Weather has long been known to have an effect on our moods, for better or worse. But seasonal affective disorder (SAD) — when depression sets in with the onset of winter — aside, studies on whether we are more or less irritable and prone to violence during hot weather are a mixed bag.

Sleep troubles, dehydration and lack of control over the weather can all contribute to lowering a person's mood or increasing violent behavior. Yet other studies have found that above a certain temperature, our aggressive tendencies tend to taper off.

However weather and drought affect our moods, Hanigan and his colleagues believe it's important to better understand this interaction. They hope their new findings will help public health officials with timing suicide prevention campaigns by pinpointing periods of greater risk throughout the year.

More from LiveScience: 

• Dry and Dying: Images of Drought
• The Worst Droughts in U.S. History
• 7 Common Summer Health Concerns

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Stephanie Pappas
LiveScienceWomen infected with the cat parasite Toxoplasma gondii are more likely to attempt suicide than non-infected women, new research finds. The reason for this connection, however, remains mysterious. 

T. gondii is a protozoa that prefers to infect cats, but can make its home in any warm-blooded animal. Humans can pick up the parasite from contact with cat feces, or by eating undercooked meat or unwashed vegetables. Once ingested, T. gondii can make a home for itself inside the brain and muscle tissues, protected inside cysts that are resistant to attacks by the host's immune system.Some studies have linked infection by this parasite with a variety of mental health and brain problems, including schizophrenia, neurosis and brain cancer. But scientists aren't clear on whether the parasite contributes to these problems or is a mere side effect. Someone with schizophrenia, for example, might struggle to keep up good hygiene, meaning the mental disorder could increase the risk for infection. [ Top 10 Diabolical & Disgusting Parasites ]

The new study linking suicide and T. gondii has the same limitation. Researchers can't say for sure whether the parasite somehow drives people to suicide. But in women with infections, they found, the risk of an attempt is 1.5 times greater than in women without.
"We can't say with certainty that T. gondii caused the women to try to kill themselves, but we did find a predictive association between the infection and suicide attempts later in life that warrants additional studies," lead researcher Teodor Postolache, a psychiatrist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said in a statement. "We plan to continue our research into this possible connection."

A common infection
One-third of the world's population is infected with T. gondii, which is often asymptomatic. The parasite is the reason that pregnant women are advised not to change cat litter boxes — they can inadvertently pass an infection directly to their fetuses.

In its usual animal hosts, T. gondii plays a literal cat-and-mouse game. Mice infected with the parasite lose their fear of the smell of cat urine. The parasite actually changes the brain so that the cat-pee smell becomes sexy to mice, prompting them to get close to their adversaries. This works out well for the parasite, which needs to get to a cat intestine to reproduce.

It's unclear whether the parasite's mind-control techniques have any effect on infected humans. Spurred by a couple of small studies of mentally ill patients that found links between suicide and T. gondii,Postolache and his colleagues put together a massive research project on 45,788 Danish women whose newborns had been screened for T. gondii antibodies between 1992 and 1995 (a positive result was a sure sign that mom was infected). About a quarter of the women had been infected at the time of delivery, the results revealed.

The researchers then combed through all of the women's later medical records for suicide attempts. They found a relatively small number, 517, had tried to kill themselves, with 78 of these women attempting violent methods such as guns, sharp instruments or jumping. Eighteen women in the sample succeeded at killing themselves, eight of whom had T. gondii infections.

A statistical analysis turned up a link between suicide attempts and parasite infection, such that an increasing number of T. gondii antibodies were linked with an increasing risk of attempts, especially violent attempts. When looking at just attempted suicides, researchers found women who were infected were 1.8 times more likely to attempt suicide by violent means than uninfected women.
The researchers were able to control for diagnoses of mental illness, meaning that infection was independently linked to suicide attempts, not just to mental health problems in general.

Suicide and parasites
More study will be needed to determine if the parasite somehow causes suicide attempts or self-harm, Postolache said.

"T. gondii infection is likely not a random event, and it is conceivable that the results could be alternatively explained by people with psychiatric disturbances having a higher risk of becoming T. gondii infected prior to contact with the health system," he said.

If the parasite is found to be a cause, the next mystery to unravel will be how, Postolache said. It could be that the parasite acts directly on the brain in a way that promotes mental illness. Or perhaps it triggers the immune system to attack the brain somehow. Either way, he said, infection by T. gondii isn't necessarily a mark of doom. For one thing, even with a 26 percent infection rate, the number of women in the study who attempted suicide was very small. For those who may be at risk, there may be treatments.

"If we can identify a causal relationship, we may be able to predict those at increased risk for attempting suicide and find ways to intervene," Postolache said.

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