A new study has determined that the month in which people experience their most intense suicidal thoughts occurs several months before the rise in suicidal behavior seen in the spring and early summer. The study also found that the highest frequency of suicidal thoughts occurred between 4 and 5 a.m. each day. Contrary to popular belief that suicide rates are highest in the winter, this behavior actually peaks in the spring and early summer. This discovery has puzzled scientists ever since it was discovered.

Research from the University of Nottingham School of Psychology in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam and Harvard University examined seasonal patterns of suicidal ideation and determined what time of day suicidal ideation peaks throughout the year. worst. The findings were published in Nature Translational Psychiatry.

Over six years, responses were collected from more than 10,000 people in the UK, USA and Canada completing questionnaires and tasks on their mood and thoughts and ideas about suicide and self-harm using the Project Implicit Health Database (PIH). .

Researchers Brian O’Shea and Renee Freichel show that suicidal thoughts are actually highest in winter (December) and have developed a conceptual model of why it takes months for suicidal behavior to reach a “tipping point.” They also found that the hours between 4 am and 6 am are probably the times when people are most vulnerable to suicide. Additionally, they found an overall increase in negative self-harm beliefs over the six-year study period.

University of Nottingham’s Dr. Brian O’Shea leads the research and explains: “It is well documented that winter is a time when people with mental health problems can struggle with low mood and depression. Indeed, seasonal affective disorder is a well-known problem associated with the change of seasons that affects the mental health of many people. So it may come as a surprise that spring, a time when people’s morale can be assumed to be high, is actually the time of year when people are most at risk of causing their own death.

The reasons for this are complex, but our research shows that suicidal thoughts and moods are at their worst in December and at their best in June. Between these two points, there is an increased risk of suicidal behavior, and we believe this is because a gradual improvement in their mood and energies may allow them to plan and attempt suicide.

Online tasks were designed to examine the temporal dynamics of overt and covert self-harm cognitions; Explicit cognitions were examined through direct questions about mood, suicidality, and self-harm on a standardized scale of 1 to 5. Implicit cognition was examined using a response. task when people have to sort words about themselves with words about death and life in real time.

Participants in the sample belonged to three groups: (1) people who had committed suicide in the past; (2) suicidal ideation and/or non-suicidal self-harm; (3) no previous self-harm, suicidal ideation or behavior). The researchers found an overall increase in negative thoughts about self-harm over six years and a seasonal effect on mood and desire to die, especially among those who had previously attempted suicide.

The results show a delay between the peak of overt and covert suicidal ideation in the winter and the peak of suicide attempts and deaths by suicide in the spring. Overt suicidal ideation, which peaked in December, preceded implicit connotations of self-harm, which peaked in February. Both of these peaks precede the spring/early summer peak of suicidal behavior. Similar delayed effects were observed over a 24-hour period; Overt suicidal ideation and mood peaked at 4-5 am, and implicit thought lagged behind this peak.

Dr O’Shea adds: “This is the first study to examine time trends in self-harming moods and thoughts on such a large scale, and truly pinpoints when intervention may be most beneficial.” Source