Suicide and genes: Commentary on Hawton and van Heeringen (Lancet 2009; 373: 1372-81)

Hawton’s and van Heeringen’s seminar on suicide is a rich source of current knowledge on the topic and highly useful for generalists. However, genetic risk factors for suicide are underappreciated in the seminar. Although family history of suicide is mentioned as important and genetic loading is listed under distal risk factors, their close connection is not emphasised: familial clustering of suicide is partly due to genetic risk factors. Convergent evidence towards this end has emerged from distinctly different genetically informative research designs. Appropriate consideration of these insights is an important public health agenda and matters for mental health literacy, as international surveys suggest disbelief in the genetics of suicide is widespread among medical and psychology undergraduates and in the general population.