Diagnosing Self-Destruction
22:57 minutes
Suicide kills twice as many people as murder each year in the United States, and rates in the military recently surpassed those among civilians. But while scientists have identified some risk factors for suicide—being white, being male, substance abuse, mental illness—they still have little idea what spurs people to take their own lives.
Segment Guests
Matthew Nock
Matthew Nock is a professor in the department of psychology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Jane Pearson
Jane Pearson is chair of the Suicide Research Consortium at the National Institute of Mental Health at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
Matthew Miller
Matthew Miller is an associate professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health and co-director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center in Boston, Massachusetts.
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Meet the Producer
About Christopher Intagliata
@cintagliataChristopher Intagliata was Science Friday’s senior producer. He once served as a prop in an optical illusion and speaks passable Ira Flatowese.