Near‐Death Experiences and Attempted Suicide

While attempted suicide generally increases the risk of later completed suicide, preliminary data and psychodynamic hypotheses suggest that serious suicide attempts followed by a transcendental near-death experience (NDE) may instead reduce subsequent overt suicide risk, even though NDEs can appear to romanticize death. The authors propose further studies on NDEs and their influence on suicidal ideation to better understand self-destructive urges and develop new suicide prevention strategies.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Attempted suicide is correlated with an increase subsequent risk of committed suicide. However, preliminary data and psychodynamic hypotheses suggest that serious suicide attempts followed by transcendental near-death experiences (NDEs) may decrease rather than increase subsequent overt suicide risk, despite the NDEs' apparent "romanticization" of death. Studies of NDEs and of their influence on suicidal ideation are proposed which may yield greater understanding of self-destructive urges and new strategies of suicide prevention.