Metaphorically we refer spring to hope, youth and growth and symbolize winter as dreary and dark but scientists have something contrary to say as studies found that suicides peak in spring and are lowest in winter pertaining to sunlight and tree pollens.
Fotis Papadopoulos, a professor of psychiatry at Uppsala University after studying the association said that theres a 20-60% higher suicide rate during spring if we take winter as a baseline.
Explanation for this anomalous effect lays in the changing levels of serotonin a neurotransmitter that regulates mood within the brain. Serotonin levels in the blood are higher during the summer than winter because levels of serotonin increase on exposure of sunlight and it influences impulsivity, moods and aggression thus can enhance the risk of suicide.
People on antidepressants are more vulnerable as during this time, some people become more physically active or agitated, which could potentially make them more likely to act on their thoughts. Maybe sunshine acts in a similar way in a minority of people.
Some psychiatric researchers believe that climatic factors are responsible for seasonal changes in the suicide rate.
According to a scientific study, of the 69,462 suicides registered in Austria during that 40-year period, they found that days with more suicides tended to be sunnier.
Theres yet another startling theory that states an association between high tree pollen and non-violent suicides in women. Its a far-fetched idea that the romantic life of trees could be linked to suicidal behavior in humans, but it occurs in small number of patients.
The link between sunlight and suicide is very vague and it must be stressed would only affect a minority of people. But given that antidepressant drugs are a far from perfect treatment and that we still dont fully understand depression, mood or our relationship with sunlight levels, its an area worthy of further study.
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