Financial Loss and Suicide

Abstract

The current Western psychiatric wisdom states that suicide is always or almost always associated with mental disorder. Careful Asian studies are casting doubt on this conclusion. Using information from the public record (newspapers, coroner’s reports, and various web-based sources), we sought evidence that, in the absence of mental disorder, suicide may be associated with major financial loss. Reports of 15 individuals who completed suicide following major financial loss were identified, thus an association between these events is supported.