How overlooked social connections can prevent suicide

Article excerpt

Psychiatry has long treated depression and suicide risk primarily through medication and therapy, overlooking the social and economic circumstances that fuel despair. A growing movement now argues that loneliness and financial stress deserve attention not just from therapists but from policymakers too. The shift reflects mounting evidence that isolation and economic hardship are as consequential as brain chemistry in determining who survives a mental health crisis. Treatment that ignores these factors misses half the problem.