High Altitude Suicide Risk?

Provocative new research suggests high altitude is in some way related to suicide risk. The assertion is challenging as the mountainous West is renowned for the beauty of its towering mountains and high deserts.

Perry F. Renshaw, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah School of Medicine and colleagues, report that the risk for suicide increases by nearly one third at an altitude of 2,000 meters, or approximately 6,500 feet above sea level.

The high suicide rates in the West prompted Renshaw, the study’s senior author and also an investigator with the Veterans Affairs Rocky Mountain (VISN 19) Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC), to undertake the research.

“We thought it was reasonable to ask if some aspect of high altitude is related to suicide,” he said.

“Altitude was the strongest factor we could find in our study. But we believe there’s also some other factor we can’t account for yet.”

After analyzing data from a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) database with information on 3,108 counties in the lower 48 states and District of Columbia, Renshaw and his colleagues concluded that altitude is an independent risk factor for suicide, and that “this association may have arisen from the effects of metabolic stress associated with mild hypoxia (inadequate oxygen intake)” in people with mood disorders.

In other words, people with problems such as depression might be at greater risk for suicide if they live at higher altitudes.

Source: University of Utah Health Sciences