Suicide among animals: A review of evidence

Psychological Reports

Volumn 101, Issue 3 I, 2007, Pages 831-848

  Preti, Antonio ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAGLIARI   (Italy)

^b Centro Medico Genneruxi   (Italy)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ALTRUISM; ANIMAL; ANIMAL BEHAVIOR; AUTOMUTILATION; REVIEW; STATISTICS; SUICIDE;

ALTRUISM; ANIMALS; BEHAVIOR, ANIMAL; SELF-INJURIOUS BEHAVIOR; SUICIDE;

EID: 38349066191     PISSN: 00332941     EISSN: 1558691X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2466/PR0.101.3.831-848     Document Type: Review

References (114)

1. ABDULALI, H. (1995) The mystery of "mass suicide" by birds. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 92, 125-126.
2. ANDRADE, M. (1996) Sex selection for male sacrifice in the Australian red back spider. Science, 271, 70-72.
3. ANDRADE, M. C. B., GU, L., & STOLTZ, J. A. (2005) Novel male trait prolongs survival in suicidal mating. Biology Letters, 1, 276-279.
4. ASBERG, M. (1997) Neurotransmitters and suicidal behavior: the evidence from cerebrospinal fluid studies. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 836, 158-181.
5. ASBERG, M., TRÄSKMAN, L., & THORÉN, P. (1976) 5-HIAA in the cerebrospinal fluid: a biochemical suicide predictor? Archives of General Psychiatry, 33, 1193-1197.
6. BACHAR, E., LATZER, Y., CANETTI, L., GUR, E., BERRY, E. M., & BONNE, O. (2002) Rejection of life in anorexic and bulimic patients. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 31, 43-48.
7. BAUMEISTER, R. F. (1990) Suicide as escape from self. Psychological Reviews, 97, 90-113.
8. BECK, A. T., KOVACS, M., & WEISSMAN, A. (1979) Assessment of suicidal intention: the Scale for Suicide Ideation. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 47, 343-352.
9. BECK, A. T., WKISSMAN, A., LESTER, D., & VI'REXLER, L. (1974) The measurement of pessimism: the Hopelessness Scale. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, 861-865.
10. BERDOY, M., WEBSTER, J. P., & MACDONALD, D. W. (2000) Fatal attraction in Toxoplasma-infected rats: a case of parasite manipulation of its mammalian host. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B, 267, 1591-1594.
11. BLAKE, J. (1978) Death by hand grenade: altruistic suicide in combat. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 8, 46-59.
12. BLEST, A. D. (1963) Longevity, palatability, and natural selection in five species of New World Saturniid moth. Nature, 197, 1183-1186.
13. BONDY, B., BUETTNER, A., & ZILI, P. (2006) Genetics of suicide, Molecular Psychiatry, 11, 336-351.
14. BOURGEOIS, M. (1987) [Are there animal models of suicidal behavior?] Psychologie Medicale, 19, 739-740. [in French]
15. BRENT, D. A., BRIDGE, J., JOHNSON, B. A.. & CONNOLLY, J. (1996) Suicidal behavior runs in families: a controlled study of adolescent suicide victims. Archives of General Psychiatry, 53, 1145-1152.
16. BRODEUR, J., & MCNEIL, J. N. (1992) Host behavior modification by the endoparasitoid Aphidius nigripes: a strategy to reduce hyperparasitism. Ecological Entomology, 17, 97-104.
17. BROWN, G. W., HARRIS, T. O., & HEPWORTH, C. (1995) Loss, humiliation and entrapment among women developing depression: a patient and non-patient comparison. Psychological Medicine, 25, 7-21.
18. BROWN, R. M., DAHLEN, E., MILLS, C., RICK, J., & BIBLARZ, A. (1999) Evaluation of an evolutionary model of self-preservation and self-destruction. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 29, 58-71.
19. CAMPBELL, W. E. (1976) Problem behavior in dogs: self-mutilation. Modern Veterinary Practice, 57, 127-128.
20. CHOW, A., & MACKAUER, M. (1999) Altered dispersal behavior in parasitised aphids: parasitoidmediated or pathology? Ecological Entomology, 24, 276-283.
21. CLOUGH, G. C (1965) Lemmings and population problems. American Scientist, 53, 199-212.
22. CRAWLEY, J. N., SUTTON, M. E., & PICKAR, D. (1985) Animal models of self-destructive behavior and suicide. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 8, 299-310.
23. DALY, M., & WILSON, M. (1999) An evolutionary psychological perspective on homicide. In D. Smith & M. Zahn (Eds.), Homicide studies: a sourcebook of social research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Pp. 58-71.
24. DAWKINS, R. (1976) The selfish gene. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univer. Press.
25. DE CATANZARO, D. (1980) Human suicide: a biological perspective. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3, 265-290.
26. DE CATANZARO, D. (1981) Suicide and self-damaging behavior: a sociobiological perspective. New York: Academic Press.
27. DE CATANZARO, D. (1984) Suicidal ideation and the residual capacity to promote inclusive fitness: a survey. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 14, 75-87.
28. DE CATANZARO, D. (1991) Evolutionary limits to self-preservation. Ethology and Sociobiology, 12, 13-28.
29. DE WAAL, F. B. (2000) Primates - a natural heritage of conflict resolution. Science, 289, 586-590.
30. DODMAN, N. H., NORMILE, J. A., SHUSTER, L., & RAND, W. (1994) Equine self-mutilation syndrome (57 casts). Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 204, 1219-1223.
31. EDINGER, A. L., & THOMPSON, C. B. (2004) Death by design: apoptosis, necrosis, and autophagy. Current Opinion in Cell Biology, 16, 663-669.
32. ELLIS, R. (1994) Monsters of the sea. New York: Knopf.
33. ENGSTRÖM, G., ALLING, C., BLENNOW, K., REGNÉLL, G., & TRÄSKMAN-BENDZ, L. (1999) Reduced cerebrospinal HVA concentrations and HVA/5-HIAA ratios in suicide attempters: monoamine metabolites in 120 suicide attempters and 47 controls. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 9, 399-405.
34. ERICKSON, M. T. (2005) Evolutionary thought and the current clinical understanding of incest. In A. P. Wolf & W. H. Durham (Eds.), Inbreeding incest, and the incest taboo: the state of knowledge at the turn of the century. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univer. Press. Pp. 161-189.
35. ESPOSITO, C., SPIRITO, A., BOERGERS, J., & DONALDSON, D. (2003) Affective, behavioral, and cognitive functioning in adolescents with multiple suicide attempts. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 33, 389-399.
36. FOELLMER, M. W, & FAIRBAIRN, D. J. (2003) Spontaneous male death during copulation in an orb-weaving spider. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B, (Suppl.), 270, S183-S185.
37. FOX, M. W. (1968) Psychomotor disturbances. In M. W. Fox (Ed.), Abnormal behavior in animals. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders. Pp. 356-364.
38. FRUEHWALD, S., FROTTIER, P., MATSCHNIG, T., & EHER, R. (2003) The relevance of suicidal behavior in jan and prison suicides. European Psychiatry, 18, 161-165.
39. GILBERT, P., & ALLAN, S. (1998) The role of defeat and entrapment (arrested flight) in depression: an exploration of an evolutionary view. Psychological Medicine, 28, 585-598.
40. GOLDSTEIN, R. C., & WILLNER, P. (2002) Self-report measures of defeat and entrapment during a brief depressive mood induction. Cognition and Emotion, 16, 629-642.
41. GUNNELL, D., & FRANKEL, S. (1994) Prevention of suicide: aspirations and evidence. British Medical Journal, 308, 1227-1233.
42. HAMILTON, W. D. (1964) The genetical evolution of social behavior. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 1, 1-16.
43. HAMILTON, W. D. (1970) Selfish and spiteful behavior in an evolutionary model. Nature, 228, 1218-1220.
44. HAMILTON, W. J. (1980) Do nonhuman animals commit suicide? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3. 278-279.
45. HARRIS, E. C., & BARRACLOUGH, B. (1997) Suicide as an outcome for mental disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry, 170, 205-228.
46. HATSUGAI, N., KUROYANAGI, M., NISHIMURA, M., & HARA-NISHIMURA, I. (2006) A cellular suicide strategy of plants: vacuole-mediated cell death. Apoptosis, 11, 905-911.
47. HEREŃU, C. B., MOREL, G. R., BELLINI, M. J., REGGIANI, P. C., SOSA, Y. E., BROWN, O. A., & GOYA, R. G. (2006) Gene therapy in the neuroendocrine system. Frontiers in Hormone Research, 35, 135-142.
48. HOLLAN, D. (1990) Indignant suicide in the Pacific: an example from the Toraja Highlands of Indonesia. Culture. Medicine and Psychiatry, 14, 365-379.
49. IGLAUER, F., F., BEIG, C., DIMIGEN, J., GEROLD, S., GOCHT, A., SEEBURG, A., STEIER, S., & WILLMANN, F. (1995) Hereditary compulsive self-mutilating behavior in laboratory rabbits. Laboratory Animals. 29, 385-393.
50. JENKINS, J. R. (2001) Feather picking and self-mutilation in psittacine birds. Veterinary Clinics of North America-Exotic Animal Practices, 4, 651-667.
51. JOINER, T. F., BROWN, J. S., & WINGATE, L. R. (2005) The psychology and neurobiology of suicidal behavior. Annual Reviews of Psychology, 56, 287-314.
52. JONES, I. H., & BARRACLOUGH, B. M. (1978) Auto-mutilation in animals and its relevance to self-injury in man, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 58, 40-47.
53. JONES, I. H., & DANIELS, B. A. (1996) An ethological approach to self-injury. British Journal of Psychiatry, 169, 263-267.
54. JOSEPHUS, R (1981) The Jewish War. New York: Dorset.
55. KLONSKY, F. D. (2007) The functions of deliberate self-injury: a review of the evidence. Clinical Psychology Reviews, 27, 226-239.
56. KRAEMER, G. W., & CLARKE, A. S. (1990) The behavioral neurobiology of self-injurious behavior in rhesus monkevs. Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 14, S141-S168.
57. LEIGHTON, A. H., & HUGHES, C. C. (1955) Notes on Eskimo patterns of suicide. Southwest Journal of Anthropology, 11, 327-338.
58. LESTER, D. (1992) Suicidal behavior in lower animals. In D. Lester, Why people kill themselves: 1990s summary of research findings on suicidal behavior. (3rd ed.) Springfield, IL: Thomas, Pp. 415-417.
59. LESTER, D. (2000) Suicidal behavior in lower animals. In D. Lester, Why people kill themselves: 2001) summary of research findings on suicidal behavior. (4th ed.) Springfield, IL: Thomas. Pp. 377-378.
60. LOSEY, J. E., &. DENNO, R. F. (1998) The escape response of pea aphids to foliar-foraging predators: factors affecting dropping behavior. Ecological Entomology, 23, 53-61.
61. LUTZ, C., MARINUS, L., CHASE, W., MEYER, J., & NOVAK, M. (2003) Self-injurious behavior in male rhesus macaques does not reflect externally directed aggression. Physiology & Behavior, 78. 33-39.
62. MALTSBERGER, L. T. (2003) Can a louse commit suicide? Crisis, 24, 175-176.
63. MANN, J. J. (2003) Neurobiology of suicidal behavior. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 4, 819-828.
64. MATSUMOIO, T., AZKKAWA, T., YAMAGUCHI, A., ASAMI, T., & ISEKI, E. (2004) Habitual self-mutilation in Japan, Psychiatry & Clinical Neuroscience, 58, 191-198.
65. MAXWELL, M. R. (1998) Lifetime mating opportunities and male mating behavior in sexually cannibalistic praying mantids. Animal Behavior, 55, 1011-1028.
66. MCALLISTER, M. K., & ROITBERG, B. D. (1987) Adaptive suicidal behavior in pea aphids. Nature, 328, 797-799.
67. MCALLISTER, M. K., ROITBERG, B. D., & WELDON, K. L. (1990) Adaptive suicide in pea aphids: decisions are cost sensitive, Animal Behavior, 40, 167-175.
68. MCCLURE, S. R., CHAFFIN, M. K., &: BEAVER, B. V. (1993) Nonpharmacologic management of stereotypic self-mutilative behavior in a stallion. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 202, 1545-1546.
69. MCKINNEY, W. T. (2001) Overview of the past contributions of animal models and their changing place in psychiatry. Seminars in Clinical Neuropsychiatry, 6, 68-78.
70. MOCK, D. W., & PARKER, G. A. (1997) The evolution of sibling rivalry. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univer. Press.
71. MOCK, D. W., & PARKER, G. A. (1998) Siblicide, family conflict and the evolutionary limits of selfishness. Animal Behavior, 56, 1-10.
72. MÜLLER, C B., VÖLKL, W., & GODFRAY, H. C. J. (1997) Are behavioral changes in parasitised aphids a protection against hyperparasitism? European Journal of Entomology, 94, 221-234.
73. NOVAK, M. A. (2003) Self-injurious behavior in rhesus monkeys: new insights into its etiology, physiology, and treatment. American Journal of Primatology, 59, 3-19.
74. NOWAK, M. A. (2006) Five rules for the evolution of cooperation. Science, 314, 1560-1563.
75. O'CARROLL, P., BERMAN, A., MARIS, R., MOSCICKI, E., TANNEY, B., & SILVERMAN, M. (1996) Beyond the Tower of Babel: a nomenclature for suicidology. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 26, 237-252.
76. O'CONNOR, R. C. (2003) Suicidal behavior as a cry of pain: test of a psychological model. Archives of Suicide Research, 1, 297-308.
77. O'CONNOR, R. J. (1978) Brood reduction in birds: selection for fratricide, infanticide and suicide? Animal Behavior, 26, 79-96.
78. PENNOCK, R. T. (2003) Creationism and intelligent design. Annual Reviews of Genomics and Human Genetics, 4, 143-163.
79. POULIN, R. (1995) 'Adaptive' changes in the behavior of parasitized animals: a critical review. International Journal of Parasitology, 25, 1371-1383.
80. PRETI, A. (2005) Suicide among animals: clues from folklore that may prevent suicidal behavior in human beings. Psychological Reports, 97, 547-558.
81. PRETI, A. (2006a) On killing by self-killing: suicide with a hostile intent. Etudes sur la mort: Thanatologie, 130, 89-104.
82. PRETI, A. (2006b) Suicide to harass others: clues from mythology to understand suicide bombing attacks. Crisis, 27, 22-30.
83. PRETI, A., & CASCIO, M. T. (2006) Prison suicides and self-harming behaviors in Italy, 1990-2002. Medicine, Science and the Law, 46, 127-134.
84. PRETI, A., & MIOTTO, P. (2005) Suicide in classical mythology: cues for prevention. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 111, 384-391.
85. PRICE, J. S., & SLOMAN, L. (1987) Depression as yielding behavior: an animal model based upon Schjedelrup-Ebbe's pecking order. Ethology and Sociobiology, 8, 85s-98s.
86. ROGGENBACH, J., MÜLLER-OERLINGHAUSEN, B., & FRANKE, L. (2002) Suicidality, impulsivity and aggresion - is there a link to 5HIAA concentration in the cerebrospinal fluid? Psychiatry Research, 113, 193-206.
87. ROY, A. (2001) Genetic influence on suicide risk. Clinical Neuroscience Research, 1, 324-330.
88. SANSONE, R. A., SONGER, D. A., & SELLBOM, M. (2006) The relationship between suicide attempts and low-lethal self-harm behavior among psychiatric inpatients. Journal of Psychiatric Practice, 12, 148-152.
89. SCHMIDT, J. P. (1968) Psychosomatics in veterinary medicine. In M. W. Fox (Ed.), Abnormal behavior in animals. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders. Pp. 365-397.
90. SELIGMAN, M. E. (1972) Learned helplessness. Annual Reviews of Medicine, 23, 407-412.
91. SHAPIRO, A. M. (1975) Beau Geste? American Naturalist, 109, 900-902.
92. SHARMA, R., MANCHANDA, S. K., &NAYAR, U. (1991) Role of opioid receptors in self-aggression in rats. Indian Journal of Physiology & Pharmacology, 35, 165-169.
93. SHER, L., MANN, J. J., TRÄSKMAN- BENDZ, L., WINCHEL, R., HUANG, Y.-Y., FERTUCK, E., & STANLEY, B. H. (2006) Lower cerebrospinal fluid homovanillic acid levels in depressed suicide attempters. Journal of Affective Disorders, 90, 83-89.
94. SHNEIDMAN, E. (1985) Definition of suicide. New York: Wiley.
95. SHNEIDMAN, E. S. (1993) Suicide as psychache: a clinical approach to self-destructive behavior. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
96. SMITH TRAIL, D. R. (1980) Behavioral interactions between parasites and hosts: host suicide and the evolution of complex life cycles. American Naturalist, 116, 77-91.
97. STACK, S. (1992) Marriage, family, religion and suicide. In R. W. Maris, A. L. Berman, J. T. Maltsberger, & R. I. Yufit (Eds.), Assessment and prediction of suicide. New York: Guilford. Pp. 540-552.
98. STACK, S. 12004) Emile Durkheim and altruistic suicide. Archives of Suicide Research, 8, 9-22.
99. STANLEY, B., GAMEROFF, M. J., MICHALSEN, V., & MANN, J.J. (2001) Are suicide attempters who self-mutilate a unique population? American Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 427-432.
100. STEIN, D. J., ZOHAR, J. H., & SIMEON, D. (2002) Compulsive and impulsive aspects of self-injurious behavior, In K. L. Davis, D. Charney, J. T. Coyle, & C. Nemeroff (Eds.), Neuropsychopharmacology: the fifth generation of progress. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams Wilkins, Pp. 1743-1757.
101. TIEFENBACHER, S., NOVAK, M. A., LUTZ, C. K., & MEYER, J. S. (2005) The physiology and neurochemistrv of self-injurious behavior: a nonhuman primate model. Frontiers in Biosciences, 10, 1-11.
102. TONDO, L., ISACSSON, G., & BALDESSARINI, R. J. (2003) Suicidal behavior in bipolar disorder: risk and prevention. CNS Drugs, 17, 491-511.
103. TRÄSKMAN, L., ÅSBERG, M., BERTILSSON, L., & SJÖSTRAND, L. (1981) Monoamine metabolites in CSF and suicidal behavior, Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 631-636.
104. TRIVERS, R. L. (1971) The evolution of reciprocal altruism. Quarterly Review of Biology, 46, 35-47.
105. TORREY, E. F., & YOLKEN, R. H. (2003) Toxoplasma gondii and schizophrenia, Emerging Infectious Diseases, 9, 1375-1380.
106. VAN HOOFF, A. J. L. (1990) From authothanasia to suicide: self-killing in classical antiquity. New York: Routledge.
107. WEBSTER, J. P. (1994) The effect of Toxoplasma gondii and other parasites on activity levels in wild and hybrid Rattus norvegicus. Parasitology, 109, 583-589.
108. WEBSTER, J. P., LAMBERTON, P. H. L., DONNELLY, C. A., & TORREY, E. F. (2006) Parasites as causative agents of human affective disorders? The impact of anti-psychotic, mood-stabilizer and anti-parasite medication on Toxoplasma gondii's ability to alter host behavior. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B, 273, 1023-1030.
109. WILLIAMS, J. M. G., CRANE, C., BARNHOFER, T., & DUGGAN, D. (2005) Psychology and suicidal behavior: elaborating the entrapment model. In K. Hawton (Ed.), Suicide and suicidal behavior: from science to practice. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univer. Press.
110. WILSON, D. S. (1975) A theory of group selection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences-USA. 72, 143-146.
111. WOOD, J. B., & WOOD, D. A. (1999) Enrichment for an advanced invertebrate. The Shape of Enrichment: A Quarterly Source of Ideas for Environmental and Behavioral Enrichment, 8, 1-5.
112. WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION. (1999) Figures and facts about suicide. Geneva: WHO Press.
113. WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION. (2001) Suicide prevention: emerging from darkness. New Delhi: WHO, Regional Office for South-East Asia.
114. ZLOTNICK, C., DONALDSON, D., SPIRITO, A., & PEARLSTEIN, T. (1997) Affect regulation and suicide attempts in adolescent inpatients. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 793-798.