There is a well developed list of risk factors to help those close to troubled individuals see warning signs before a suicide attempt. Recent research has been looking for signs of risk through brain svn imaging. The findings revealed 3 patterns through MRI that correlate with suicidal behavior in adults. The aim was to predict suicide risk in adolescents in an effort to prevent it. A study conducted on adolescents who have a history of depression and suicide attempts found abnormal functioning of areas in the brain that process attention. The subjects were asked to look at angry faces and found that when suicidal adolescents were having an emotional response to a person or a situation, these areas of the brain would respond, but were inactive in the absence of the emotional stimulus. The researchers believe that the results indicate people who have already attempted suicide and they plan on using the same technology to look for patterns that may indicate high risk for future attempts.
