January 02, 2026
Engin Akyurt/Pexels
Nearly half of people who take their own lives do not have histories of suicidal behaviors. New research suggests their genetic risk factors may be different than those of people with diagnosed depression and anxiety.
Suicide leaves anguish and unanswered questions. Loved ones may wonder if they missed warning signs of mental health disorders. But a new study found that some people who die by suicide without previous suicidal behavior may not been depressed.
"There are a lot of people out there who may be at risk of suicide where it's not just that you've missed that they're depressed, it's likely that they're in fact actually not depressed," said Hilary Coon, the study's first author. "That is important in widening our view of who may be at risk. We need to start to think about aspects leading to risk in different ways."
Suicide is a leading cause of preventable death locally and nationwide — More than 49,000 people in the United States died by suicide in 2023 – equating to about one death every 11 minutes, the most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.
Nearly 2,000 people in Pennsylvania and nearly 800 people in New Jersey took their own lives in 2022, recent statistics show.
Conventional thinking has been that histories of psychiatric conditions and prior suicide attempts are the best way to identify and prevent deaths by suicide. But nearly half of people who take their own lives have no known mental health conditions.
Researchers from the University of Utah wanted to know why this is the case, so they looked at health records and data relating to nearly 2,800 suicide deaths, including diagnoses and clinical notes that tracked a history of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. The researchers also examined genetic data.
The study, published Oct. 20 in JAMA Network Open, found rather than a lack of diagnosis or access to mental health care, some people who die by suicide may have different underlying genetic risks compared to people with known mental health conditions and a history of suicidal behavior who take their own lives.
Because of this, conventional screening tools for suicide may not be comprehensive enough, the researchers said.
"A tenet in suicide prevention has been that we just need to screen people better for associated conditions like depression," Coon said. "And if people had the same sort of underlying vulnerabilities, then additional efforts in screening might be very helpful. But for those who actually have different underlying vulnerabilities, then increasing that screening might not help for them."
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