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Lu et al. J Transl Genet Genom 2020;4:203-9 Journal of Translational
DOI: 10.20517/jtgg.2020.33 Genetics and Genomics

Review Open Access

Historical analysis of suicide

Da-Yong Lu , Hong-Ying Wu , Shan Cao , Jin-Yu Che 1
2
1
3
1 School of Life Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
2 College of Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
3 Kyoto University of Art & Design, Kyoto 606-8271, Japan.
Correspondence to: Dr. Da-Yong Lu, School of Life Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
E-mail: ludayong@shu.edu.cn

How to cite this article: Lu DY, Wu HY, Cao S, Che JY. Historical analysis of suicide. J Transl Genet Genom 2020;4:203-9.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/jtgg.2020.33

Received: 14 May 2020 Accepted: 18 May 2020 Available online: 18 Jun 2020

Science Editor: Ramón Cacabelos Copy Editor: Cai-Hong Wang Production Editor: Jing Yu

Abstract
Suicide is a dangerous clinical event causing 2% of human mortality. Due to its inherent danger to life and
complexity, suicide studies are in high demand. Many resources have been allocated to the development of
predicting suicides, its prevention and useful medical interventions so that biomedical and scientific study of
the subject is indispensable. Historically, knowledge on suicide was largely based on mental illness studies.
The diagnosis of suicide,mood disorders and the treatments have been reported since over 2000 years ago
(Hippocrates in 460-377, BC). Despite a long history of association between suicide and mood disorder, the
related terminology have evolved greatly. Yet, mortality reduction has been minimal despite many diagnostic and
therapeutic studies and no effective therapeutic means have been developed. To improve on this scenario, we
review the history and literature on suicide.

Keywords: Suicide, psychiatric disease, mood disorder, terminology, diagnostics, mental illness, suicide mortality

INTRODUCTION
Medical significance
[1]
Suicide is a dangerous and complex event causing 2% of human mortality . It remains an enigma and
further studies on the topic are indispensable. Apart from mortality, huge resources have to be allocated
towards the prediction, prevention and medical management of suicide. High-quality medical investigation
[2-4]
of suicide is already underway .

© The Author(s) 2020. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.

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