What Can Psychiatric Genetics Offer Suicidology?

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Abstract
Summary: There is good evidence from recent studies that depression is familial, and that a substantial proportion of the variation in liability is explained by genes. Suicidal behavior, including completed suicide, also seems to cluster in families. First-degree relatives of individuals who have committed suicide (included dizygotic twins) have more than twice the risk of the general population. For identical co-twins of suicides, the relative risk increases to about 11. Applying a simple structural equation model to the published data suggests a heritability for completed suicide of about 43% (95% confidence intervals 25-60). It is not known at present whether the genes predisposing to suicide are identical with those predisposing to affective disorder, but since only about half of those committing suicide have a diagnosis of depression, it seems probable that the overlap is incomplete. The mode of inheritance of suicidal behavior is almost certain to be complex, involving many genes. There have already...