A significant academic insight into the factors that enhance the risk of suicide was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

The research, a unique endeavor of its kind, was led by Dr Vincent Riordan, a consultant psychiatrist from New Craigs Hospital in Inverness, indicates a relationship between the number of children born to a woman and the risk of suicide on the later child. A study conducted in Sweden two years ago also showed similar susceptibility factors of committing suicide.

Dr Riordan said his team delved into the records of more than a million people born between 1969 and 1986. These records were studied against the background of the register of Scottish deaths. The research findings showed, those children with older siblings, a young mother or being born under weight increases the likelihood of being plagued with suicidal tendencies later in life. The authors also allude to the connection between stress in pregnant women and vulnerability of children to suicide.

Angela Fisher, Highland co-ordinator for Choose Life, the Scottish Executive's strategy to reduce suicide, said, "It reinforces the importance of a child's early experience and the need for early interventions that aim to improve a child's emotional resilience and development of adaptive coping strategies early on in life."