Genetics of suicidal behavior

All the discussed findings seem to confirm the important role of genetics in the pathogenesis of suicidal behavior, also showing how the inheritance of suicide risk factors is at least partially independent of the inheritance of psychiatric disorders. As well as for other psychopathological traits, suicidal behavior inheritance could result from the contribution of multiple genes with small effect size. Nevertheless, genetics is only one of several factors which affect the suicidal threshold and maybe only when specific combinations of genes meet specific combinations of life events is suicide more likely to occur.