Some people die from just giving up
People can die simply because they’ve given up, life has beaten them and they feel defeat is inescapable, according to new research.
The study, by Dr John Leach, a senior research fellow at the University of Portsmouth, is the first to describe the clinical markers for ‘give-up-itis’, a term used to describe what is known medically as psychogenic death.
It usually follows a trauma from which a person thinks there is no escape, making death seem like the only rational outcome.
If not arrested, death usually occurs three weeks after the first stage of withdrawal.
Dr Leach said: “Psychogenic death is real. It isn’t suicide, it isn’t linked to depression, but the act of giving up on life and dying usually within days, is a very real condition often linked to severe trauma.”
He describes in clinical detail the five stages leading to progressive psychological decline and suggests give-up-itis could stem from a change in a frontal-subcortical circuit of the brain governing how a person maintains goal-directed behaviour.