Research has been published in The American Journal of Psychiatry that claims to have found how a specific gene reacts to stress, and apparently, this could predict whether or not a person is at risk of suicide.

Dr. Zachary Kaminsky took blood samples from living people, and found an increase in the chemical that sets off this gene in those, who had reported suicidal thoughts.

Dr. Kaminsky said that this discovery could help a lot of people: “If we can identify who is at risk, we may be able to intervene in effective ways. Notably, we could identify individuals in military populations who are more vulnerable to stress. We know they’re going to be experiencing stress when they go off to combat.”

These advances in science can’t come quick enough, Ireland had the second highest rate of suicide across Europe last year.

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