What is the relationship between poor eyesight and suicidal tendencies?

Suicide, which causes the death of nearly one million people annually worldwide, represents a major and urgent global public health challenge.

Although a growing body of studies and research has addressed the topic of suicide, understanding it and identifying the various factors leading to it is still complex.

Risk factors for suicidal ideation vary and can include a family history of suicide or attempted suicide, mental disorders, chronic physical illness, and sociodemographic factors.

Additional risk factors include sleep disturbances, decreased mobility, and poor quality of life.

Sensory impairments, especially visual impairment, are also potential risk factors, as a research paper resulting from a systematic review and meta-analysis (statistical analysis), published online April 18 in the journal JAMA Network Open, says that visual impairment is associated with an increased risk of suicide.

Dr. Chung Young Kim, from Seoul National University Hospital in South Korea, and his colleagues examined the relationship between visual impairment and various aspects of suicide.

The primary outcome was based on measuring the odds ratio for suicidal behavior. Data from 31 population-based studies were reviewed that included 5,692,769 individuals, 52% of whom were women, with an average age of 48 years.

The researchers found that poor vision was associated with an increased risk of suicide, including suicidal ideation, suicidal behavior, and suicidal death. This high risk was particularly evident among teens with poor vision.

"This finding underscores the importance of eye health for overall mental health. It is recommended that clinicians remain alert to elevated risks and be prepared to implement appropriate suicide prevention measures when needed, especially when dealing with adolescents," the researchers wrote.

This scientific review highlights that those with significant vision problems report a worrying level of reduced quality of life, decreased physical activity, social isolation, lack of independence, financial problems, and high levels of depression, all of which are factors that may contribute to enhanced vision thinking. Suicide.

Kim and colleagues emphasized that the limited number of studies examining adolescents with visual impairment and suicide risk indicates the importance of focusing additional research on this population.

“Because the etiology of suicidal behavior is complex, and because diverse risk factors are associated with different individual and cultural contexts, further research is warranted to identify factors that may modify suicide risk in patients with visual impairment,” they wrote in the paper.