Difficulty making good choices is one of the factors that make certain people vulnerable to suicide

Posted on September 14, 2015

According to a series of studies done, high-risk decision-making was prevalent among many parents of individuals who committed suicide, which may serve to explain its apparent “inheritability”.

Why does poor decision-making lead to suicide?

According to Dr. Jollant: “People who have a tendency to make risky decisions lean toward solutions that provide short-term benefits despite the high risk, instead of solutions that are safer over the long term. They also have difficulty identifying alternative solutions when faced with a problem.”

This can explain the link between decision-making and suicide. Dr. Jollant adds that “Within the context of a major depression, this difficulty making good decisions can translate into choosing death, which is a solution that ends the suffering immediately, despite its irreparable consequences, without seeing any alternative solutions.”

Dr. Jollant foresees developing psychotherapies that focus on decision-making and other cognitive functions in order to reduce the vulnerability to suicide.

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Category(s):Suicide Prevention

Source material from PsyPost