Piece of Mind: Mental Health & Psychiatry · Piece of Mind: Mental Health & Psychiatry

Episode 19: Reducing the risk of suicide for people with bipolar disorder

·1 hr 19 min·5 clips

Bipolar suicide risk is described as 30 to 60 times higher than the general population.

The episode begins with Catherine from the National Centre for Mental Health introducing Peace of Mind and warning listeners that suicide will come up in the discussion. She also points to support resources for anyone who needs them. The focus then shifts to suicide in people living with bipolar disorder and the research still needed here. Tanya Gergel joins from Bipolar UK and Cardiff, alongside Ian Jones, director of NCMH. The discussion starts from a simple idea: mental ill health has to be understood on more than one level. Genetics matters. So do psychology, social context, political factors, and biology. Ian Jones is clear that genetic risk is worth studying, but he is just as clear that it does not explain everything. The conversation keeps coming back to what this work might actually change for people. The pair discuss how bipolar disorder seems to cut across demographic boundaries in ways that make easy patterns hard to find. They note that sex differences in suicidality in the general population do not map neatly onto bipolar disorder. The discussion then moves into hormonal change and periods of reproductive transition. Ian explains that those periods can carry risk for mood disorders and for bipolar disorder in particular. Childbirth is the clearest example. Later, the conversation turns toward the research still under way at NCMH and Cardiff. Tanya mentions a genomics hub and a suicide research proposal she is developing with collaborators, with Swansea also involved. The ending stays open rather than tidy. The episode leaves room for another conversation once the research is further along.

As heard by us

A careful discussion of suicide risk in bipolar disorder and the research still needed to explain it.

The episode centers on suicide risk in bipolar disorder and keeps its focus on what research can and cannot yet explain. Tanya Gergel and Ian Jones move between genetics and the wider social, political, biological, and hormonal factors that may shape risk, which gives the…

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You want a careful look at suicide in people living with bipolar disorder, with research on genetics, social factors, and hormonal change.

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