The World Health Organization estimates that there were more than 800,000 suicides worldwide in 2012, according to BBC News.
Researchers of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) have found a clear pattern of behavior that could be an indicator for doctors that a depressed patient may be about to attempt suicide, according to the U.K. publication The Independent.
Researchers reportedly established that “depressive mixed states,” which include depression mixed with “risky behavior” or agitation, were observed in a high percentage of the patents who attempted suicide. .
“A depressive mixed state is where a patient is depressed, but also has symptoms of ‘excitation’, or mania,” explained Dr. Dina Popovic, one of the report’s authors.
“In fact 40 per cent of all depressed patients who attempted suicide had a ‘mixed episode’ rather than just depression. All who suffer from mixed depression are at much higher risk of suicide. We found this significantly more in patients who had previously attempted suicide than those who had not.”
“Risky behavior” reportedly includes reckless driving or promiscuous behavior while “psychomotor agitation” can include pacing around rooms or wringing their hands.
The recent study has become an important message for clinicians all around the world.
Michael Mansfield QC, whose daughter, Anna, took her own life earlier this year, reportedly stated that he was interested in furthering his knowledge regarding the recent study.
“We want to know more. We want somebody to correlate all this and make sense of what seems like a senseless situation,” explained Mansfield.
“So I would welcome anybody who’s spent the time and bothered to assemble the pattern of behavior because in Anna’s case there was a pattern of behavior and I for one didn’t really spot it.”
