Suicide prevention in the water we drink?

Now, who would think that the kind of water we drink could possibly be implicated in the prevention of suicide.  If that was the case, what impact would that have on our community based, very expensive and not at all clearly impactful suicide prevention programs?  I mean, if prevention is in the water, what could that mean?

Now some very interesting epidemiological research (published in this month’s edition of the British Journal of Psychiatry) suggests that there actually be a link between the type of water we drink and rates of suicide.  Ok – be careful.  This is a co-relation so it does not prove causality, but the relationship has some solid other evidence to suggest it may be a strong finding.

The culprit (if you want to call it that), turns out to be small amounts of lithium!  Lithium is known to have therapeutic effects on mood control when given in specific doses that lead to specific blood levels.  Lithium is also known to have an anti-suicide effect for people who have a mood disorder.  That is, lithium treatment is linked to low suicide rates while discontinuing lithium treatment is linked to high suicide rates.   Lithium has also been successfully used to treat impulsive anger outbursts, and impulsive self-directed anger may be associated with suicide.  And, apparently the Roman’s used to send people who were suffering from mood disorders (depression and bipolar) to therapeutic spas whose waters were rich in natural lithium salts!

The study, which was conducted in Austria, showed that in regions where the water was lithium rich the suicide rate was about one-third less than in regions in which the water was lithium poor.  Now these were very small amounts of lithium; much less than are used therapeutically.

We do not know what impacts small amounts of lithium could have on brain function.  Perhaps there is a mood or impulsivity mediating effect – both of these factors are known to increase suicide risk.   In any case, this is an observation worth researching further, both at the level of epidemiology and at the level of understanding what small amounts of lithium can do to affect our emotions and behaviors.  Who knows what the outcome will be?

- Stan