Feb 15th, 2007
The Neuroscience of Suicide
Suicide is a weird, taboo subject, which may be why studies on suicide are so rare. A few researchers took this opportunity to put several women who have documented attempts at suicide and compare them with healthy women & non-suicidal depressive patients.
Suicidal patients had smaller right and left orbitofrontal cortex gray matter volumes compared with healthy comparison subjects. Suicidal patients had larger right amygdala volumes than non-suicidal patients. Abnormalities in the orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala in suicidal patients may impair decision-making and predispose these patients to act more impulsively and to attempt suicide
While I hesitate to interpret that for fear that my knowledge of neuroscience is too shaky and I might get it wrong, what strikes me is that there is a difference. A physiology we can point to and say “this influences behavior.”