Posted on 01/25/2005 6:23:36 PM PST by beavus
January 20, 2005 -- Intellectual capacity in early adulthood is strongly related to subsequent risk of suicide in men, finds a study in this week's BMJ.
Few previous studies have assessed the association of measures of intelligence with suicide, and results have often conflicted.
Researchers analysed the results of four intelligence tests, performed at conscription into military service, for 987,308 Swedish men. The men were monitored for up to 26 years and suicides were recorded.
Better performance on the tests was associated with a reduced risk of suicide. The strongest associations were with the logic test score, where the risk of suicide was three times higher in the lowest compared with the highest scorers.
The strength of the link and the large sample size suggest that this finding is unlikely to be due to chance, they add. One possible explanation could be that influences on brain development during childhood also increase an individual's susceptibility to mental illness and hence suicide. Alternatively, it may be due to an individual's ability to solve problems in times of crisis or maladjustment in childhood, they conclude.
We now have a scientific basis for the DU Suicide Watch!
Probably an inability to attain the state of cognitive dissonance that is occasionally necessary to retain sanity.
Better performance on the tests was associated with a reduced risk of suicide.Ummm... shouldn't the headline then read:
Lack of Intellect Linked To Risk Of Suicide In Young Men
???
If true, then I would attribute such a finding to the fact that individuals with greater intellectual capacities tend to be more pampered and coddled. They develop an attitude that success is something that is simply owed to them. This attitude inevitably breeds a sense of failure when reality happens and the brats realize that they'll have to work to gain success and that there are people smarter than they are.
Ego + Sense of Entitlement + Failure = Depression
Of course, this is in Sweden. But I'd assume that spoiled brats are essentially the same around the world.
You're right. I completely retract my previous post, which shouldn't be too hard, since it was conjecture anyway. The content of the article seemed a little incongrous, considering the title, but I figured it was just a matter of my being googly-eyed from studying to much. A very poorly-written headline.
Does this mean I could make a lot of money if I wrote "Suicide for Dummies"?
LOL, you think they have high IQs, or every did?????
Nah, it should be: Study Shows Depression hits Losers the Hardest.
Survival of the Fittest at work, again.
Nature offers no "affirmitive action" for the unintelligent and weak. Nor should America.
Oddly, this is the opposite of my personal experience. All the sucidal people I've know have been very intellegent.
It would have been less ambiguous, but technically the headline is correct, as "intellect" is merely a property, not a quantity (as in "low intellect", "high intellect", etc.), and even idiotic humans have some intellect.
How many of your friends have commited suicide?
Any common denominator?
...in jest and with a smile.
RJ
Maybe it explains the decline in Democrats.
Sure - they rapidly come to the realization that the world despises and envies them for their intellect, if they aren't in fact being punished outright by the public schools for daring to get ahead of the slow learners.
How sad. I know some young men who are not geniuses but they have clear cut moral values and a heart for others. Perhaps in a country like Sweden that wouldnt count for much but here in the States, particularly in red country, a good hearted reliable young man is more valueable than an intellegent one.
The Universe can be a daunting place, and truth is not always comforting. Without a good support structure of faith, family and friends, it can indeed be frightening.
Perhaps the best advice is that given by the angels when they appear: "Fear not"
It would have been less ambiguous, but technically the headline is correct, as "intellect" is merely a property, not a quantity (as in "low intellect", "high intellect", etc.), and even idiotic humans have some intellect.I respectfully disagree. The simplest definition of Intellect is power of knowing
If we replaced intellect with electricity which would be correct:
Electricity Linked to Brownouts
or
Lack of Electricity Linked to Brownouts
?
The Universe can be a daunting place, and truth is not always comforting. Without a good support structure of faith, family and friends, it can indeed be frightening.Seee??? This is why the headline is misleading.
It's not intellectual powerhouses that are offing themselves, but dullards.
LACK of Intellect Linked To Risk Of Suicide In Young Men
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