Night Falls Fast

by Kay Redfield Jamison

  6 • A PLUNGE INTO DEEP WATERS

  1 “It was, he said”: Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher. Problems with alcohol and a lifetime of virulent moods eventually caught up with Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), who attempted suicide the year before he died.

  2 “But it is always a question”: Virginia Woolf, The Diary of Virginia Woolf, vol 3. Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), in whose family there was a great deal of depressive illness, committed suicide after years of struggling with manic-depression.

  3 Human conduct: J. Ordronaux, “On Suicide,” American Journal of Insanity, 20 (1864): 380–401, p. 380.”

  4 “Observations show that”: Ibid., p. 381.

  5 “With reference to suicide”: F. Winslow, The Anatomy of Suicide (Boston: Longwood Press, 1978; first published 1840), p. 152.

  6 “Captains C. L. and J. L.”: B. Rush, Medical Inquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind (New York: Kimber and Richardson, 1812).

  7 “There is nothing more firmly established”: C. W. Pilgrim, “Insanity and Suicide,” American Journal of Insanity, 63 (1907): 349–360, p. 359.

  8 “The evil results”: J. M. S. Wood and A. R. Urquhart, “A Family Tree Illustrative of Insanity and Suicide,” Journal of Mental Science, 47 (1901): 764–767, p. 767.

  9 “A man named Edgar Jay Briggs”: Medical Record, 60 (1901): 660–661.

  10 More recently, in Iraq: F. Dabbagh, “Family Suicide,” British Journal of Psychiatry, 130 (1977): 159–161.

  11 Many other “suicide families”: For example, L. B. Shapiro, “Suicide: Psychology and Familial Tendency—Report of a Family of Suicides with History and Discussion,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 81 (1935): 547–553; Khin-Maung-Zaw, “A Suicidal Family,” British Journal of Psychiatry, 139 (1981): 68–69.

  12 a strong genetic basis: I. I. Gottesman and J. Shields, Schizophrenia and Genetics: A Twin Vantage Point (New York: Academic Press, 1972); S. S. Kety, D. Rosenthal, P. H. Wender, F. Schulsinger, and B. Jacobsen, “Mental Illness in the Biological and Adoptive Families of Individuals Who Have Become Schizophrenic,” Behaviour Genetics, 6 (1976): 219–225; I. I. Gottesman and J. Shields, Schizophrenia: The Epigenetic Puzzle (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982); K. S. Kendler and A. M. Gruenberg, “An Independent Antigen of the Danish Adoption Study of Schizophrenia: VI. The Relationship Between Psychiatric Disorders as Defined by DSM-III in the Relatives and Adoptees,” Archives of General Psychiatry, 41 (1984): 555–564; P. McGuffin, A. E. Farmer, I. I. Gottesman, R. M. Murray, and A. Reveley, “Twin Concordance for Operationally Defined Schizophrenia: Confirmation of Familiality and Heritability,” Archives of General Psychiatry, 41 (1984): 541–545; I. I. Gottesman and A. Bertlesen, “Confirming Unexpressed Genotypes for Schizophrenia—Risks in the Offspring of Fischer’s Danish Identical and Fraternal Discordant Twins,” Archives of General Psychiatry, 46 (1989): 867–872; M. T. Tsuang and S. V. Faraone, The Genetics of Mood Disorders (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1990); P. Tienari, “Gene-Environment Interaction in Adoptive Families,” in H. Hafner and W. Gattaz, eds., Search for the Causes of Schizophrenia (Berlin: Springer, 1990), pp. 126–143; W. H. Berrettini, T. N. Ferraro, L. R. Goldin, D. E. Weeks, S. Detera-Wadleigh, J. I. Nurnberger, and E. S. Gershon, “Chromosome 18 DNA Markers and Manic-Depressive Illness: Evidence for a Susceptibility Gene,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 91 (1994): 5918–5921; P. Asherson, R. Mant, and P. McGuffin, “Genetics and Schizophrenia,” in S. R. Hirsch and D. R. Weinberger, eds., Schizophrenia (Oxford: Blackwell Science, 1995), pp. 253–274; O. C. Stine, J. Xu, R. Koskela, F. J. McMahon, M. Gschwend, C. Friddle, C. D. Clark, M. G. McInnis, S. G. Simpson, T. S. Breschel, E. Vishio, K. Riskin, H. Feilotter, E. Chen, S. Shen, S. Folstein, D. A. Meyers, D. Botstein, T. G. Marr, and J. R. DePaulo, “Evidence for Linkage of Bipolar Disorder to Chromosome 18 with a Parent-of-Origin Effect,” American Journal of Human Genetics, 57 (1995): 1384–1395; N. B. Freimer, V. I. Reus, M. A. Escamilla, L. A. McInnes, M. Spesny, P. Leon, S, K. Service, L. Smith, S. Silva, E. Rojas, A. Gallegos, L. Meza, E. Fournier, S. Baharloo, K. Blankenship, D. J. Tyler, S. Batki, S. Vinogradov, J. Weissenbach, S. H. Barondes, and L. A. Lodewijk, “Genetic Mapping Using Haplotype, Association and Linkage Methods Suggests a Locus for Severe Bipolar Disorder (BPI) at 18q22-q23,” Nature Genetics, 12 (1996): 436–441; E. S. Gershon, J. A. Badner, S. D. Detera-Wadleigh, T. N. Ferraro, and W. H. Berrettini, “Maternal Inheritance and Chromosome 18 Allele Sharing in Unilineal Bipolar Illness Pedigrees,” Neuropsychiatric Genetics, 67 (1996): 202–207; D. F. MacKinnon, K. R. Jamison, and J. R. DePaulo, “Genetics of Manic Depressive Illness,” Annual Review of Neuroscience, 20 (1997): 355–373; S. H. Barondes, Mood Genes: Hunting for Origins of Mania and Depression (New York: W. H. Freeman, 1998).

  13 more than thirty family studies: Among them are N. Farberow and M. Simon, “Suicide in Los Angeles and Vienna: An Intercultural Study of Two Cities,” Public Health Report, 84 (1969): 389–403; F. Stallone, D. L. Dunner, J. Ahearn, and R. R. Fieve, “Statistical Predictions of Suicide in Depressives,” Comprehensive Psychiatry, 21 (1980): 381–387; C. Tishler, P. McKenry, and K. Morgan, “Adolescent Suicide Attempts: Some Significant Factors,” Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 11 (1981): 86–92; B. D. Garfinkel, A. Froese, and J. Hood, “Suicide Attempts in Children and Adolescents,” American Journal of Psychiatry, 139 (1982): 1257–1261; G. E. Murphy and R. D. Wetzel, “Family History of Suicidal Behavior Among Suicide Attempters,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 170 (1982): 86–90; K. M. Myers, P. Burke, and E. McCauley, “Suicidal Behavior Among Suicide Attempters,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 170 (1982): 86–90; C. R. Pfeffer, G. Solomon, R. Plutchik, M. S. Mizruchi, and A. Weiner, “Suicidal Behavior in Latency-Age Psychiatric Inpatients: A Replication and Cross Validation,” Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 21 (1982): 564–569; A. Roy, “Family History of Suicide,” Archives of General Psychiatry, 40 (1983): 971–974; M. T. Tsuang, “Risk of Suicide in Relatives of Schizophrenics, Manics, Depressives, and Controls,” Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 44 (1983): 396–400; J. A. Egeland and J. N. Sussex, “Suicide and Family Loading for Affective Disorders,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 254 (1985): 915–918; A. Roy, “Family History of Suicide in Manic-Depressive Patients,” Journal of Affective Disorders, 8 (1985): 187–189; M. Shafii, S. Carrigan, R. Whittinghill, and A. Derrick, “Psychological Autopsy of Completed Suicides in Children and Adolescents,” American Journal of Psychiatry, 142 (1985): 1061–1064; M. Kerfoot, “Deliberate Self-Poisoning in Childhood and Early Adolescence,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 29 (1988): 335–343; D. Shaffer, “The Epidemiology of Teen Suicide: An Examination of Risk Factors,” Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 49 (1988): 36–41; B. Mitterauer, “A Contribution to the Discussion of the Role of the Genetic Factor in Suicide, Based on Five Studies in an Epidemiologically Defined Area (Province of Salzburg, Austria),” Comprehensive Psychiatry, 31 (1990): 557–565; S. B. Sorenson and C. M. Rutter, “Transgenerational Patterns of Suicide Attempt,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59 (1991): 861–866; C. R. Pfeffer, L. Normandin, and T. Kakuma, “Suicidal Children Grow Up: Suicidal Behavior and Psychiatric Disorders Among Relatives,” Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 33 (1994): 1087–1097; K. Malone, G. Haas, J. Sweeney, and J. Mann, “Major Depression and the Risk of Attempted Suicide,” Journal of Affective Disorders, 34 (1995): 173–185; D. A. Brent, J. Bridge, B. A. Johnson, and J. Connolly, “Suicidal Behavior Runs in Families: A Controlled Family Study of Adolescent Suicide Victims,” Archives of General Psychiatry, 53 (1996): 1145–1152; B. A. Johnson, D. A. Brent, J. Bridge, and J. Connolly, “The Familial Aggregation of Adolescent Suicide Attempts,” Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 97 (1998): 18–24; D. J. Statham, A. C. Heath, P. A. F. Madden, K. K. Bucholz, L. Bierut, S. H. Dinwiddie, W. S. Slutske, M. P. Dunne, and N. G. Martin, “Suicidal Behaviour: An Epidemiological and Genetic Study,” Psychologica
l Medicine, 28 (1998): 839–855.

  14 suicide in a violent manner: P. Linkowski, V. de Maertelaer, and J. Mendlewicz, “Suicidal Behaviour in Major Depressive Illness,” Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 72 (1985): 233–238; G. N. Papadimitriou, P. Linkowski, C. Delarbre, and J. Mendlewicz, “Suicide on the Paternal and Maternal Sides of Depressed Patients with a Lifetime History of Attempted Suicide,” Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 83 (1991): 417–419; A. Roy, “Features Associated with Suicide Attempts in Depression: A Partial Replication,” Journal of Affective Disorders, 27 (1993): 35–38.

  15 the Old Order Amish: J. A. Egeland and J. N. Sussex, “Suicide and Family Loading for Affective Disorders,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 254 (1985): 915–918.

  16 “racing one’s horse and carriage”: J. A. Egeland, A. M. Hostetter, and S. K. Eshleman, “Amish Study: III. The Impact of Cultural Factors on Diagnosis of Bipolar Illness,” American Journal of Psychiatry, 140 (1983): 67–71, p. 68.

  17 replicated in an Austrian study: B. Mitterauer, M. Leibetseder, W. F. Pritz, and G. Sorgo, “Comparisons of Psychopathological Phenomena of 422 Manic-Depressive Patients with Suicide-Positive and Suicide-Negative Family History,” Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 77 (1988): 438–442; B. Mitterauer, “A Contribution to the Discussion of the Role of the Genetic Factor in Suicide, Based on Five Studies in an Epidemiologically Defined Area (Province of Salzburg, Austria),” Comprehensive Psychiatry, 31 (1990): 557–565; B. A. Johnson, D. A. Brent, J. Bridge, and J. Connolly, “The Familial Aggregation of Adolescent Suicide Attempts,” Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 97 (1998): 18–24.

  18 nearly four hundred pairs: W. Haberlandt, “Aportación a la Genética del Suicidio,” Filio Clínica Internacional, 17 (1967): 319–322; N. Juel-Nielsen and T. Videbech, “A Twin Study of Suicide,” Acta Geneticae Medicae et Gemellologiae, 19 (1970): 307–310; A. Roy, G. Rylander, and M. Sarchiapone, “Genetics of Suicide: Family Studies and Molecular Genetics,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 836 (1997): 135–157; A. Roy, D. Nielsen, G. Rylander, M. Sarchiapone, and N. Segal, “Genetics of Suicide in Depression,” Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (Suppl. 2) (1999): 12–17.

  19 In a different study: A Roy, N. L. Segal, and M. Sarchiapone, “Attempted Suicide Among Living Co-Twins of Twin Suicide Victims,” American Journal of Psychiatry, 152 (1995): 1075–1076.

  20 concordance rate observed for manic-depression: P. McGuffin and R. Katz, “The Genetics of Depression and Manic-Depressive Disorder,” British Journal of Psychiatry, 155 (1989): 294–304; M. T. Tsuang and S. V. Faraone, The Genetics of Mood Disorders (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1990); L. Rifkin and H. Gurling, “Genetic Aspects of Affective Disorders,” in R. Horton and C. Katona, eds., Biological Aspects of Affective Disorders (London: Academic Press, 1991), pp. 305–334; D. F. MacKinnon, K. R. Jamison, and J. R. DePaulo, “Genetics of Manic Depressive Illness,” Annual Review of Neuroscience, 20 (1997): 355–373; A. G. Cardno, E. J. Marshall, B. Coid, A. M. Macdonald, T. R. Ribchester, N. J. Davies, P. Venturi, L. A. Jones, S. W. Lewis, P. C. Sham, I. I. Gottesman, A. E. Farmer, P. McGuffin, A. M. Revely, and R. M. Murray, “Heritability Estimates for Psychotic Disorders,” Archives of General Psychiatry, 56 (1999): 162–168. (Note: Concordance rates for manic-depressive illness in dizygotic, or fraternal, twins range from 13 to 30 percent.)

  21 concordance rate for … schizophrenia: E. Kringlen, “Twins—Still Our Best Method,” Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2 (1976): 429–433; I. I. Gottesman and J. Shields, Schizophrenia: The Epigenetic Puzzle (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1982); A. E. Farmer, P. McGuffin, and I. I. Gottesman, “Twin Concordance for DSM-III Schizophrenia: Scrutinizing the Validity of the Definition,” Archives of General Psychiatry, 44 (1987): 634–641; S. Onstad, I. Skre, S. Torgersen, and E. Kringlen, “Twin Concordance for DSM-III-R Schizophrenia,” Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 83 (1991): 395–402; P. Asherson, R. Mant, and P. McGuffin, “Genetics and Schizophrenia,” in S. R. Hirsch and D. R. Weinberger, eds., Schizophrenia (Oxford: Blackwell Science, 1995), pp. 253–274. (Note: Concordance rates for schizophrenia in dizygotic, or fraternal, twins are generally in the range of 15 to 20 percent.)

  22 The first study: R. Schulsinger, S. Kety, D. Rosenthal, and P. Wender, “A Family Study of Suicide,” in M. Schou and E. Stromgren, eds., Origins, Prevention and Treatment of Affective Disorders (New York: Academic Press, 1979), pp. 277–287.

  23 more than half of those: M. M. Weissman, J. K. Myers, and W. D. Thompson, “Depression and Treatment in a U.S. Urban Community: 1975–1976,” Archives of General Psychiatry, 38 (1981): 417–421; S. Shapiro, E. A. Skinner, L. G. Kessler, M. Von Korff, P. S. German, G. L. Tischler, P. J. Leaf, L. Benham, L. Cotler, and D. A. Regier, “Utilization of Health and Mental Health Services: Three Epidemiologic Catchment Area Sites,” Archives of General Psychiatry, 41 (1984): 971–978; L. N. Robins and D. A. Regier, eds., Psychiatric Disorders in America: The Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study (New York: Free Press, 1991).

  24 In a second study of Danish adoptees: P. Wender, D. Kety, D. Rosenthal, F. Schulsinger, J. Ortmann, and I. Lunde, “Psychiatric Disorders in the Biological and Adoptive Families of Adopted Individuals with Affective Disorder,” Archives of General Psychiatry, 43 (1986): 923–929.

  25 Ivor Jones and Brian Barraclough: I. H. Jones and B. M. Barraclough, “Auto-Mutilation in Animals and Its Relevance to Self-Injury in Man,” Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 58 (1978): 40–47, pp. 45–46.

  26 Severe self-inflicted injuries: J. D. Christian and H. L. Ratcliffe, “Shock Disease in Captive Wild Animals,” American Journal of Pathology, 28 (1952): 725–737; H. A. Cross and H. F. Harlow, “Prolonged and Progressive Effects of Partial Isolation on the Behaviour of Macaque Monkeys,” Journal of Experimental Research on Personality, 1 (1965): 39–49; M. Meyer-Holzapfel, “Abnormal Behaviour in Zoo Animals,” in F. W. Fox, ed., Abnormal Behaviour in Animals (Philadelphia: Saunders, 1968), pp. 476–503; C. A. Levison, “Development of Head Banging in a Young Rhesus Monkey,” American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 75 (1970): 323–328; K. A. McColl, “Necropsy Findings in Captive Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) in Victoria, Australia,” in M. Fowler, ed., Wildlife Diseases of the Pacific Basin and Other Countries (Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference of the Wildlife Disease Association, Sydney, Australia, August 25–29, 1981); M. S. Landi, J. W. Kreider, C. M. Lang, and L. P. Bullock, “Effects of Shipping on the Immune Function in Mice,” American Journal of Veterinary Research, 43 (1982): 1654–1657.

  27 Many ranch mink: G. de Jonge, K. Carlstead, and P. R. Wiepkema, The Welfare of Ranch Mink, Publication 010, Centre for Poultry Research and Extension, Beekbergen, Netherlands, 1986.

  28 “the severe class”: I. H. Jones, “Self-Injury: Toward a Biological Basis,” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 26 (1982): 137–150, p. 138.

  29 The agitation and frustration appear: E. M. Boyd, M. Dolman, L. M. Knight, and E. P. Sheppard, “The Chronic Oral Toxicity of Caffeine,” Canadian Journal of Psychology Pharmacology, 43 (1965): 995–1007; H. A. Cross and H. F. Harlow, “Prolonged and Progressive Effects of Partial Isolation on the Behavior of Macaque Monkeys,” Journal of Experimental Research on Personality, 1 (1965): 39–49; J. M. Peters, “Caffeine Induced Hemorrhagic Automutilation,” Archives of International Pharmacodynamics, 169 (1967): 139–146; A. S. Chamove and H. F. Harlow, “Exaggeration of Self-Aggression Following Alcohol Ingestion in Rhesus Monkeys,” Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 75 (1970): 207–209; G. Allyn, A. Demye, and I. Begue, “Self-Fighting Syndrome in Macaques: A Representative Case Study,” Primate Medicine, 17 (1976): 1–22.

  30 Prisoners, for example: F. Yaroshevsky, “Self-Mutilation in Soviet Prisons,” Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal, 20 (1975): 443–446.

  31 Rats, when too populous: J. B. Calhoun, The Ecology and Sociology of the Norway Rat, Public Health Service Publication no. 1008 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1963).

  32 Cannibalism occasionally erupts: M.
P. Simon, “The Influence of Conspecifics on Egg and Larval Mortality in Amphibians,” in G. Hausfater and S. B. Hrdy, eds., Infanticide: Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives (New York: Aldine, 1984), pp. 65–86; W. L. Rootes and R. H. Chabreck, “Cannibalism in the American Alligator,” Herpetogica, 49 (1993): 99–107.

  33 Snowshoe hares: R. G. Green, C. L. Larson, and J. F. Bell, “Shock Disease as the Cause of the Periodic Decimation of the Snowshoe Hare,” American Journal of Hygiene, 30 (1939): 83–102.

  34 Prolonged psychopathology: S. J. Suomi, H. F. Harlow, and M. T. McKinney, “Monkey Psychiatrists,” American Journal of Psychiatry, 128 (1972): 927–932.

  35 Lemmings, the poster animals: D. Chitty, Do Lemmings Commit Suicide? Beautiful Hypotheses and Ugly Facts (New York: Oxford, 1996).

  36 George Schaller observed: G. B. Schaller, The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972).

  37 “We are strongly predisposed”: E. O. Wilson, On Human Nature (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978), pp. 106, 119.

  38 The recently emerging field: D. de Catanzaro, Suicide and Self-Damaging Behavior: A Sociobiological Perspective (New York: Academic Press, 1981); R. Gardner, “Mechanisms in Manic-Depressive Disorder: An Evolutionary Model,” Archives of General Psychiatry, 39 (1982): 1436–1441; D. H. Rubinstein, “A Stress-Diathesis Theory of Suicide,” Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 16 (1986): 100–115; R. M. Nesse, “Evolutionary Explanations of Emotions,” Human Nature, 1 (1990): 261–289; P. Gilbert, Depression: The Evolution of Powerlessness (New York: Guilford, 1992); M. T. McGuire, I. Marks, R. M. Nesse, and A. Troisi, “Evolutionary Biology: A Basic Science for Psychiatry?” Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 86 (1992): 89–96; K. R. Jamison, Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament (New York: Free Press, 1993); D. R. Wilson, “Evolutionary Epidemiology: Darwinian Theory in the Service of Medicine and Psychiatry,” Acta Biotheoretica, 41 (1993): 205–218; J. Price, L. Sloman, R. Gardner, P. Gilbert, and P. Rohde, “The Social Competition Hypothesis of Depression,” British Journal of Psychiatry, 164 (1994): 309–315; D. S. Wilson, “Adaptive Genetic Variation and Human Evolutionary Psychology,” Ethology and Sociobiology, 15 (1994): 219–235; D. R. Wilson, “The Darwinian Roots of Human Neurosis,” Acta Biotheoretica, 42 (1994): 49–62; R. M. Brown, E. Dahlen, C. Mills, J. Rick, and A. Biblarz, “Evaluation of an Evolutionary Model of Self-Preservation and Self-Destruction,” Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 29 (1999): 58–71.