Could Spectacles Reduce Suicide Risk?

Alicia Sparks, Mental Health Notes — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:40:53 +0000

Well, this is an interesting new take on suicide prevention.

According to Byron L. Lam, M.D. of Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine, and his colleagues, “improved treatments of visual impairment and factors causing poor health could potentially reduce suicide risk.”

This news comes to me via Science Daily article Visual Impairment May Be Associated With Higher Suicide Risk, but the findings came to Lam and colleagues after a study (supported by grants from the National Eye Institute and the National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health) that reviewed data from national health surveys taken between the years of 1986 and 1996 by 137,479 participants.

Of course, Lam and colleagues aren’t suggesting that eye glasses alone will help with suicide prevention, but that the treatment of vision problems and other factors causing poor health could help decrease suicide risk.