People who earn low scores on intelligence tests in their early
life run a higher risk of suicide and suicide attempt later in
life, a study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden claims.

The researchers followed almost 50,000 Swedish men from the
1970s until recently, to reach their findings.

RELATED: OUR BRAINS WANT MAXIMUM REWARDS,
LINKED TO MEMORIES OF CHOICES, NEW STUDY FINDS^[1]

Intelligence and emotional control

Previous studies have linked low intelligence and low emotional
control to an increased risk of suicide. This study adds to a
growing literature by showing how this tendency develops over
time.

By looking at individuals over the course of 40 years, the
new study^[2]
showed that the risk of suicide later in life stayed high in
people who showed low intelligence in their younger years. Those
with low emotional control, however, were shown to be more likely
to improve over time.

“The most interesting aspect of this study is that the negative
effect of low emotional stability is strongest in adolescence,”
Alma Sörberg Wallin, a psychologist at the Department of Public
Health Sciences at Karolinska Institutet and one of the study’s
authors, said in a press release^[3].

From left: Alma Sörberg Wallin, psychologist and project
coordinator at the Department of Public Health Sciences at
Karolinska Institutet, with Nora Hansson Bittár, a psychology
student. Source: Ulf Sirborn via
EurekAlert^[4]

“Among people in their 50s, the association between low
emotional stability and suicide is much weaker. That adds a certain
level of hope and supports the description of suicide as a
permanent solution to a temporary problem.”

Comparing individuals

In order to compare intelligence and emotional control with
suicidal behavior, the scientists divided the men into a scale of
five levels.

Each scale corresponded to IQ bands that ranged from less than
82 to more than 126, as well as emotional control measurements
ranging from one (very low) to five (very high).

Death and hospital discharge registers were then used to
identify attempted suicides and suicides that had occured between
1973-2008.

The study shows that individuals with the lowest scale of
intelligence were approximately six times more likely to attempt
suicide compared with people on the highest intelligence scale.

A similar trend was shown on emotional control. Men with the
least emotional control were almost seven times more likely to show
suicidal behavior than men in the highest category. Those with
emotional control problems were more likely to improve over
time.

Source: alexsl/iStock^[5]

Preventative care and support

“Intelligence is strongly linked to educational success, and
without a high educational degree you are more likely to end up in
a low socioeconomic position or become unemployed,” Nora Hansson
Bittár, psychology student and the study’s main author, said in the
press release.

“This highlights the need for support and preventive measures.
No one should end up in such a vulnerable situation that suicide
appears to be the only way out.”

The study^[6]
is published in the journal Psychological
Medicine.