Suicides in Mood Disorders: Causes and Ways to Prevent

What Are Mood Disorders?

Mood disorders, also referred to as affective disorders, are a group of conditions involving but not limited to mental and behavioral disorders. People often go through sad and happy thoughts; they develop anxious and depressed feelings; it is pretty common to suffer from these emotions; however, suffering from these feelings on a deeper level or at a severe intensity is what marks mood disorders. Mood disorders have certain subcategories; they include:

• Atypically elevated mood (such as mania or hypomania, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder).

• Subtypes of psychiatric syndromes (like depressive disorders, dysthymia, and cyclothymia).

• Presence of more than one mood disorder (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder).

• Mood disorders due to substance abuse, or substance-induced, or a complication due to a medical condition.

Mood disorders are flagged off as a drastic change in the mood that disrupts personal and professional life. The pendulum oscillating between depression and mania is marked as a characteristic feature of bipolar disorder. The severity and intensity of these disorders vary as cyclothymia is a minimal form of bipolar disorder and dysthymia is a milder form of major depressive disorder.

What Are the Types of Mood Disorders?

Mood disorders are categorized into the following category:

• Major depressive disorder is characterized by multiple episodes of depression and the symptoms include sleep disturbance, loss of interest, hopelessness, angry outbursts, etc.

• Bipolar disorder (I and II) is characterized by extreme changes in mood. The affected individual may have symptoms like mania, depression, irritability, etc.

• Cyclothymic disorder - The individual with the cyclothymic disorder may feel emotionally high or low. They may feel extremely happy, have racing thoughts, and have other symptoms.

• Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder - It begins in childhood, and the affected child may be moody with extreme anger.

• Persistent depressive disorder - A prolonged or chronic depression that leads to a lack of interest, hopelessness, and other extreme symptoms of depression.

• Premenstrual dysphoric disorder - A severe kind of premenstrual syndrome that leads to anxiety, anger, depression, mood swings, etc.

What Causes Mood Disorders?

Several factors constitute mood disorders. Often it is caused by an imbalance of the chemicals in the brain. Some of the common causes of mood disorders are:

• Stress (in personal or professional life).

• Depression.

• Anxiety (or anxiety disorder).

• Positive familial history of mood disorders.

• Bipolar disorder.

• Seasonal affective disorder - Depression may occur due to seasonal changes. Feeling sad, having low energy, and having trouble concentrating are a few symptoms.

• Trauma (or accident).

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - A mental disorder that occurs following a traumatic event. The symptoms include negative thoughts, lack of interest, and avoiding certain things or activities.

• Often seen in medical illnesses (such as parkinsonism) or conditions (such as diabetes).

What Are the Symptoms of Mood Disorders?

With respect to changes in mood, mood disorders present with different symptoms. Some of the common symptoms of mood disorder are-

• Easily irritable.

• Aggressive behavior.

• Anxiety attacks.

• Panic attack or disorder.

• A drastic change in weight or appetite.

• Difficulty concentrating.

• Low energy levels.

• Feeling sluggish.

• Sleep deprivation.

• Malnutrition.

What Is Suicide?

Suicide is defined as an intentional act of causing harm to oneself, often resulting in death. Several factors can trigger an individual to attempt suicide.

What Are the Causative Factors of Suicide?

1. Familial history of suicide (attempt or death).

2. History of attempting suicide.

3. Feeling of despair, hopelessness, anxiety, and isolation.

4. Substance addiction, abuse, or misuse (alcohol or illicit drugs).

5. Suicidal thoughts.

6. Often due to an underlying psychiatric disorder, major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, or bipolar disorder.

7. Due to past trauma (post-traumatic stress disorder).

8. Family history of stress disorder.

9. History of abuse or harassment (sexual, physical, or mental).

10. The social rejection or outcasts due to their sexual orientation or preferences (often lesbians, gays, bisexuals, or transgender have unsupportive family or peers or are often socially isolated, which might lead to a hostile environment and self-harming thoughts).

What Defines Suicidal Tendencies?

1. Constant or repetitive talk about harming or killing oneself.

2. Planning or getting the means to kill or take their own lives.

3. Socially awkward or withdrawing from society or social encounters.

4. Extreme fluctuation in mood or mood swings.

5. Drug dependence or alcohol addiction.

6. Feeling anxious or hopeless.

7. Anxiety.

8. A drastic change in routines such as eating and sleeping patterns.

9. Entertaining the idea of self-destruction or doing reckless activities.

10. Saying goodbyes and ending relationships without proper logical explanation.

11. Personality changes may happen due to an underlying mental illness such as bipolar disorder or due to mood disorders, which are:

• Easily triggered. Often ends up crying or having a public outburst.

• Symptoms of depression or major depressive disorder.

• Trauma or near-death experience.Gloomy or sad mood.

• Pessimistic attitude towards life.

• Excessive guilt.

• Sensitive to failure or rejection.

What Causes Suicide in Mood Disorders?

• Attempting Suicide - A way to end one’s life is often seen in severe mood disorders. Suicidal tendencies or suicidality is an alarming sign in psychiatry or mental illness. Behaviors leading to suicide are intense, complex, and triggered even by minute factors or due to multiple build-up factors. Avoiding treatment or failing to accept the need for treatment can often lead to complications of a mental disorder, which might lead to suicide. People suffering from bipolar disorder (a form of mood disorder) are at a higher risk of committing suicide, as the treatment option of bipolar disorder is viable, yet the reoccurrence rate is high.

• Trouble in Accepting Help - People suffering from bipolar disorder have troubles or issues accepting the help they need to maintain a comparatively normal lifestyle. While the symptoms of bipolar disorder intensify, the difficulty in managing the symptoms also increases, leading to more grave thoughts and ultimately inflicting self-harm, often leading to suicide (completing suicide).

• Clinical Depression - With the actual gravity of the situation, a higher rate of suicides is noted in the case of major depressive disorders. Major depressive disorder is also known as clinical depression. Symptoms of clinical depression are severe. Depression can cause an individual to suffer from sad, low, and anxious thoughts. Inflicting self-harm is usually an end-stage symptom of major depressive disorder. Often the inability to ask for help or accept help leads to an increase in the severity of the symptoms, which leads to feelings of hopelessness, anxiety, despair, and sadness and often ends up in attempting suicide.

• Suffering From Mood Disorders- It is directly proportional to the risk of death by suicide. Locating and understanding the risk factor plays a crucial role in helping individuals suffering from mood disorders. Trigger factors can play a two-edged sword. Understanding the trigger or risk factors is vital, as facing trigger factors every day can make an individual viable or immune to those trigger factors; however, in many cases, it has been noted that exposure to trigger factors can worsen the situation leading to the severity of the symptom and conditions.

• Undiagnosed and untreated cases contribute to an increased number of suicides in those suffering from mood disorders (especially bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder).

How to Prevent Suicides in Mood Disorders?

Prevention of suicides in mood disorders is regulated by many factors, the majority of which is dominated by the treatment of mood disorders. Treatment of mood disorders depends on the subcategory of the disorder or illness and the symptoms an individual is suffering from.

The treatment plan employed for mood disorders includes the following:

1. Medication Therapy: Medicines are prescribed to help an individual deal with mood disorders. To manage everyday symptoms suffered by an individual medicinal therapy is vital. Some of the medications therapy prescribed are:

• Antidepressants - In the case of major depressive disorders or clinical depression, depression, seasonal affective disorder, and depressive episodes of bipolar disorder, antidepressants are prescribed to ease up the symptoms and mild the severity of the illness. Some of the antidepressants prescribed are Serotonin and Norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), Tricyclic antidepressants, Monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and Tetracyclic antidepressants.

• Mood Stabilizers - Mood disorders are about the fluctuation of mood, flagged off by mood swings. Mood stabilizers are medications used to regulate mood swings that are characteristic features of bipolar and other disorders. Some of the common mood stabilizers prescribed are Valproic acid, Lithium, and Oxcarbazepine.

• Antipsychotics - Patients suffering from a mood disorder, especially bipolar disorder, suffer from episodes of hallucinations, illusions, delusions, or mixed episodes. Some of the antipsychotics are Aripiprazole which is used to treat depression and episodes of hallucinations.

2. Psychotherapy: Patients suffering from mood disorders need psychotherapy as much as they need medicinal therapy. With proven studies and experiments, it has been proven that an adjunct of psychotherapy and medicinal therapy has proven to prevent the worsening of the illness.

Some of the psychotherapies suggested are-

• Cognitive-behavioral therapy - It is a combined therapy that replaces the faulty emotional response or other behavior with the desired response.

• Interpersonal therapy - A short-term therapy that helps in managing personality issues, especially in adolescents and children.

• Problem-solving therapy - It is also a combined treatment that encourages the affected individual to manage stressful situations.

3. Brain Stimulation Therapy: In the case of severe mood disorders, a technique by the name of brain stimulation therapy is used. Several types of brain stimulation therapy are-

• Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) - A treatment that involves passing an electric current in the brain to stimulate chemical changes that may alter or resolve specific psychological conditions.

• Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) - In this procedure, the specialist may place an electromagnetic coil over the scalp to trigger or stimulate areas in the brain that control mood and depression.

• Light therapy - Light is used to bring about chemical changes in the brain and alleviate symptoms of mood disorders.

Conclusion:

The possibility of attempting suicide and suicidal behavior in mood disorders is an inherent phenomenon. Suicidal behavior in patients with mood disorders is dependent on the state and severity of the disorder, which means that suicidality markedly decreases after an appropriate treatment which is an adjunct of medicinal therapy with psychotherapy.

Suicide is not an answer; however, a feeling of despair and hopelessness can make an individual take such a drastic step. There is no definitive way to prevent or stop an individual from attempting suicide; however, asking for help and accepting help is a beneficial step toward recovery. There are certain therapy groups and support groups formed to prevent an individual from committing suicide. Individuals suffering from mood disorders must remember that they are not alone, and help is available.