Assignment Relationship between drugs and suicide

Kinetiz

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Hey all,

I'm currently a 2nd year university student studying chemistry. My end of year project involves the relationship between drugs and emotions.
I'm posting here because research on this is scarce and hard to find, so I was wondering if anyone can help out at all.

The topic is of drugs that seem to help CAUSE things such as depression and suicidal thoughts. Not from a sense of being a drug addict, and suffering due to repetitive uses, but rather drugs that on a first or second use induce these things, be it a side effect or intention.

Again, just trying to dig up some starters for research, so only really need basic description of the drug and a name.
I'll then have to chase this up finding references and can then post back here on accuracy from others if is so wished.

Anyone that can help is greatly thanked.
Cheers,
Kinetiz
 
Hey Kinetiz. \

Im not sure I have a clear picture of what you are looking for exactly. Are you looking for possible drugs that cause depression or suicidal ideation after one or two uses?

im not surprised you are having trouble finding any data on this. I dont think many drugs do this. If someone takes drugs and develops a strong or lasting emotional response it likely indicates that they had a unexposed mental health condition.

I would look at drugs that could cause a dysregulation resulting in deficient serotonergic function and Dopamine hyperactivity as a possible relationship between relationship to cause SI.

Deficient serotonergic function is known to play an important role in the high comorbidity between impulsive aggression and suicide (Kamali, Oquendo, & Mann 2001). Low serotonin activity is associated with high-lethality suicide attempts (Mann & Malone, 1997), as well as impulsive and aggressive behaviors (Coccaro, Siever, Klar, Maurer, Cochrane, Cooper, Mohs, & Davis, 1989). Specifically, diminished serotonin activity is linked with the most violent type of suicidal behavior. For example, lower prolactin response to fenfluramine was seen in individuals with high lethality suicide attempts (Malone, Corbitt, Li, & Mann, 1996). In addition, several studies report strong associations between deficient serotonin system function and violent suicide attempts (Asberg, Traskman, & Thoren, 1976; Mann et al., 1996; Mann & Malone, 1997).

Dopamine hyperactivity may secondarily contribute to impulsive aggression, given the modulation of serotonin system over dopaminergic activity.

Serotonergic dysfunction in the PFC also appears to underlie the comorbidity of impulsive aggression with depression, substance abuse, and suicidal behaviors. A modified diathesis-stress model has been proposed, in which a biological diathesis is regarded as a serotonergic deficiency in the ventral PFC. This deficiency can lead to dopamine hyperactivity as a result of reduced serotonergic control over the dopamine system. These pathological processes may result in a failure to regulate emotion, leading to impulsive and aggressive behavior towards the self and others.

Role of Serotonin and Dopamine System Interactions in the Neurobiology of Impulsive Aggression and its Comorbidity with other Clinical Disorders



Drug Use and Suicide Ideation and
Behavior among North Carolina
Public School Students



Antidepressant Induced Suicidal Ideation
 
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I'm currently a 2nd year university student studying chemistry. My end of year project involves the relationship between drugs and emotions.
I'm posting here because research on this is scarce and hard to find, so I was wondering if anyone can help out at all.

Research is scarce...? You can't have searched properly!

The topic is of drugs that seem to help CAUSE things such as depression and suicidal thoughts. Not from a sense of being a drug addict, and suffering due to repetitive uses, but rather drugs that on a first or second use induce these things, be it a side effect or intention.

It's highly unlikely that any drug is going to cause suicidal thoughts the first time you use it. Suicidal thoughts are just very extreme. Some people report depressive symptoms during an MDMA comedown, so look into that.
 
Research is scarce...? You can't have searched properly!



It's highly unlikely that any drug is going to cause suicidal thoughts the first time you use it. Suicidal thoughts are just very extreme. Some people report depressive symptoms during an MDMA comedown, so look into that.

I got suicidal first time i used molly...
 
When typing out a lengthy comment on the Internet —in the land where attention spans nanometers—it wouldn't be decorous to not preface this comment with a caveat lector warning of its verbosity. So there.

I think it's much more likely that people who are already depressed will turn to drugs.

Indeed. Both critical thought and scientific concensus seem to corroborate the notion that drug dependency is a sequela (a result) of psychiatric or neurologic disorders, and not the obverse.
I surmise—by approximating the percent of misinformed people with whom I've discussed this topic and therefrom extrapolating that percentage to the broader population—that a majority of people would aver that some number—depending on whom one asks, it may be a few, some, a lot, most, or all—of psychiatric disorders are a corollary of drug dependency or, if you may, substance use disorders.

It's a curious thing that some people can experiment with a drug and not go on to develop cravings or dependence, but some others need only try that same drug once to get hooked.

My own experiences with psychotropic drugs can serve as a great example of this phenomenon. I have used cocaine on several occasions and sometimes more than once or twice in a single day. In spite of this, I am completely free of a cocaine addiction or incessant cravings. If I happen to be offered a line of the stuff while at some gala or clambake, I may accede if the ambiance is right or the coke is pure. The drug is fun, vivifying, has at times made a boring social event enjoyable, and has the attractive potential of magically transforming me from a gauche, reticent, shy, and tactless lummox to a loquacious, garrulous, assertive, and convivial social cynosure.

But unlike some unfortunate others, cocaine has not robbed me of my life savings and lowered my integrity to the point of indiscriminately trading sexual favors to procure another rail.
But then there is alcohol (and a myriad of other pharmacologically-similar drugs, like barbiturates and benzos). While a staggering proportion of Americans and other denizens of the Western World seem to quaff down inebriating libations near daily, I cannot even have a container of liquor within eyesight without inevitably imbibing the whole bottle and transmogrifying into a debauched, sexually aggressive, immoderately petulant, and lawbreaking troglodyte. Indeed, while others drink with temperance, I am a definite dipsomaniac.

Why is there such an extreme inconsistency in a drug's addiction potential? Why does its addictive effects seem so mercurial and different between one individual and another?

I believe the most plausible hypothesis is that an individual's personality and psychopathology are the primary determiner of who is and who is not at risk of developing a dependence to a given drug. That is to say, the type of drug user is of equal or greater influence than the type of drug used, insofar as the probability of addiction is concerned.

It's not pharmacology nor psychiatry in isolation that determines a drug's addictive potential and is therefore considerable; rather, it's their interface—the synergy between the drug's pharmacology (its set of pharmacodynamic properties in combination with the body's set of innate pharmacokinetic responses to its introduction) and the psychopathology of the person it's administered in that is the deciding factor in which lives the drug results in the ruination of or is essentially innocuous.

Earlier in this comment, I mentioned my weakness for alcohol. I reckon my proclivity to excessively drink is a result of alcohol being able to assuage the symptoms of my anxiety disorder and social phobia. In essence, the degree to which I find alcohol addictive is roughly commensurate with the degree to which I find alcohol medicating.

This is not applicable to just myself, but to everyone. People who suffer from certain psychiatric illnesses—especially schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders like PTSD and social anxiety, and most personality disorders—have a much greater probability of abusing drugs (a form of self-medicating) than people without disabling mental illnesses.

I'm not sufficiently motivated to cull the Internet for apposite references to substantiate my argument. I do invite the incredulous reader to proffer references of their own that may invalid my claims. But I digress.

In conclusion, drug use, in the mentally ill, may in fact deter suicide. However, when the drugs that, say, a schizophrenic has been abusing to distract himself from his anguish lose their efficacy—which will happen with most things done in excessive amounts over a long interval of time—suicidal ideation may begin to replace his drug cravings.
 
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The one with the strongest suicidal feelings in my oppion and from experience is a MDMA comedown they are horrific espet if you used other things at the same time like wizz
 
Yes, there is a correlation between drug use and suicide ideation etc. In my experience as a polysubstance drug addicted individual this has been the case. I use some drugs including dextromethorphan and chlorpheniramine to help with depression and anxiety. The side effects aren't great and has let to disturbing thoughts including suicide and psychotic disorder.
 
Thomasarnot, I feel that my experiences are relatable to what you're describing (i. e., choosing drug abuse as a substitute for therapy—though I find the former more effective than the latter). I have and still am self-medicating with recreational drugs to ameliorate anxiety, but in my case also for OCD, mild apathy, alexithymia, and other psychiatric foibles and disorders .

However, your conclusion seems unlikely for two reasons:
1.) It isn't corroborated by everyone's experience, namely my own.
2.) The confident and assured tenor expressed in your first sentence cannot be justified by the quality of the argument it precedes, as I will try to demonstrate.


Yes, there is a correlation between drug use and suicide ideation etc.


Correlation does not imply causation. If the likelihood of event X increases commensurately and concurrently with the likelihood of event Y , there is a correlation. If, therefrom, the correlation of these two variables is used to argue that either variable is the cause of the other, then the argument is invalid.


People who live in the Europe are on average taller than people who live in Southeast Asia. Therefore, living in Europe causes taller height and living in SEA causes shorter height. As Wolfgang Pauli—the late theoretical physicist—might say of the quality of this "reasoning“: It's not even wrong!


my experience as a polysubstance drug addicted individual this has been the case.


Anecdotal evidence is usually not strong evidence. Moreover, the experience of a single individual cannot be extrapolated to a whole population to make a conclusion without employing faulty and egregious reasoning of one of the most execrable kinds.


I use some drugs including dextromethorphan and chlorpheniramine to help with depression and anxiety. The side effects aren't great and has let to disturbing thoughts including suicide and psychotic disorder.


This is an example of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. You illogically presuppose that the presence of X resulted from Y because X wasn't present until after Y.


If one were to drink a cup of water and then develop the flu a week later, did the water cause the flu? To the irrational mind, yes.


You admit to using drugs to assuage the symptoms of your anxiety and depression—two psychiatric disorders that raise the risk of suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts in their sufferers. But you obstinately avoid this fact and insist on attributing the cause of your own suicidal ideation to the drugs you use in spite of this.


The drugs won't cause suicide. Conversely, they may function as a temporary suicide deterrent. Consider why you even used these drugs in the first place. Was it to make your psychiatric afflictions less insufferable? Indeed, you concede that to be the case.


But if these psychotropics initially made life more tolerable, why might they suddenly make life so much less tolerable to even lead one to commit suicide?


Maybe the drugs aren't as effective as before. Maybe the drugs exacerbated your anxiety and depression, making the two disorders more likely to cause suicide. Or maybe your illnesses worsened on their own. Maybe you had a latent predisposition to these, in your words, "disturbing thoughts including suicide and psychotic disorder" that was provoked by psychoactive drug abuse.


There are many confounding variables to be considered. You shouldn't allow yourself to abandon critical thought and to isolate one of many variables or potentially causative factors as culpable, when you have no evidence and only conjecture and preconceived hypotheses at your disposal.
 
I have heard that psychoactive substances often bring up emotional problems that the user had thought he/she had overcome. As far as I know this can happen with any psychoactive. I'm sorry I can't supply reliable sources, its just something I remember reading about.
 
I experienced extremely morbid thoughts on my first dose of Lyrica...
which is rare, but not unheard of .
 
So, I think the correlation between the two is this;

Many people who commit suicide have clinical depression

People who have depression are more likely to use drugs, which subsides the depression and helps you escape, making all of your problems go away and you happier.

People who do drugs are likely to become addicted (depending on which drugs they are taking)

Addiction can spiral out of control and cause more problems such as worrying about money to fund your habit, stealing, lying, withdrawals, losing family and friends, etc.

All of these can make you even MORE depressed, causing one of the deepest depressions one can ever deal with which can bring you closer to suicide.

Though, you don't have to be addicted or hooked to commit suicide. You may be depressed and just so happen to use drugs and not be addicted, but kill yourself because of the depression alone.

Hope this helped, I have witnessed this and somewhat experienced it.
 
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