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Published on: March 2, 2015
What destroys our restraints against suicide?
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, PA.
Abstract:
There seems to exist an inherent barrier to the achievement of any extreme biological state, be it massive intravascular coagulation, intense euphoria, or the inalterable decision to kill oneself. Moreover, defenses against suicide may in themselves be pathological, producing other types of maladaption. Indeed, certain lethality indicators possess a threshold, below which they act as a barrier against suicide. Wrist-cutting, self-treatment with drugs and alcohol, and psychosis itself all can play a defensive role in the organism's struggle for survival.
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