Can Someone Commit Suicide only using Caffeine?
*Warning: Please visit www.suicide.org if you are considering to attempt suicide. This article is purely scientific and does not aim to affect those with suicidal tendencies.
Introduction
Suicide is a nightmare that has awaken humanity to awful realities since the dawn of history; people with severe illnesses, physical or psychological, decided to take their own lives leaving loved ones suffering behind. Greek thinkers like Pythagoras, Aristotle, and Plato among others condemned suicide, with Pythagoras believing that there was only a finite number of souls for use in the world, and that the sudden and unexpected departure of one would upset a delicate balance. Obviously not everyone in the olden days was against suicide, the Council of Arles stated “if a slave commits suicide no reproach shall fall upon his master.
Suicide, while it does not require a definition, is the action of someone taking their own lives through a variety of ways including hanging, ingestion of poison, the use of fire-arms and the list goes on.
People of different levels of culture, wealth and knowledge have attempted suicide, and some actually have died as a result. Comedians like Robin Williams, who have voiced the genius Disney character Genie in Aladdin, TV personalities like Anthony Bourdain, who have been a great influence as a chef, documentary producer and above all a human, and fashion designers like Kate Spade, who was an inspiration to a huge number of people, are all people who we have lost to suicide.
Suicide may be the result of a depression, bipolar disease, substance abuse, alcoholism, while we may argue that alcoholism and substance abuse are means of escapism of the stress that fall on the shoulders of people who are hardworking, socially awkward, or just people who can not find a way to balance their life or those who can not find support and appreciation within their circles of friends and acquaintances. Being in 2018, the competition has never been hotter, everyone has to put hundreds of hours of work per week just to stay fresh in the game, and no one ever likes to feel left out. Almost everyone suffers from fear of missing out, they want to be in the game; they want to be the best physicists, mathematicians, doctors, blockchain developers, computer scientists. Almost no one wants to be average. People suffer from overestimation; people tend to think they are better than average; and that, in itself, is a scary thought. “What if I was below average?”
Stressful Suicide
Men in the US who are above 40 and get fired of their jobs, develop chronic pain and depression, get treated with Opioids, develop addictions, and what happens next? They die. Oddly enough, most humans need to feel responsible. They need a purpose, and if they do not have that, they try to kill themselves. Obviously, that is not the only reason for suicide, it is just one of hundreds of reasons that drive people to their deaths.
Some suicides are impulsive, as we have discussed, that result from stress from burning out from work, relationship issues, or bullying, and it has been seen over the past couple especially with the LGBTQ+ community, specifically with younger individuals who are yet to live their lives and discover the things they would have worth the efforts and passion.
Why do not everyone commit suicide in the same manner? Could not everyone just hang themselves, or ingest poison? It might be an issue of availability other than anything else, but why do people try to get creative with the ways they kill themselves? It usually has nothing to do with a mark or a message they want to leave, it might be related to comfort among other reasons. A person would not want to cut their veins, because it is a very bloody scene, but they might want to ingest a large quantity of caffeine, perhaps because caffeine was a way to escape their daily stress in the first place. I have seen really hardworking people have a fixed routine: they wake up at 5 AM, drink a large pot of coffee, work until 6 or 7 PM, drinking a lot of caffeine throughout the day (through coffee and Redbulls), then in the evening drink massive amounts of alcohol; work hard and party hard. But is that really the way to go? It might seem so to the unobservant who does not pay attention. Am I ranting about something I do not do? Absolutely not.
Caffeinated Suicide
Would people feel more comfortable if they died of an illness? Could someone cause themselves to get cancer on purpose? How would anyone go about that anyway? Does that count as suicide? These are all very complex questions that might need some deliberation before finding an answer, but they are related to the topic on hand. People who overdose on caffeine might be searching for an easier way out, which might contradict basic logic, because you might argue that they would still suffer from their overdose, but it is still an easier way, why? Because cutting your veins is graphic, horrifying and overall an awful experience, but drinking massive amounts of coffee, which is not how suicide by caffeine usually occurs, might be covered as a story of courage and dedication to someone’s work and dreams.
Caffeine or 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine is a basic alkaloid that occurs naturally in many plants distributed world-wide, including cocoa and coffee beans, kola nuts, yaupon holly leaves and tea leaves. The total caffeine amount in these materials can be up to 2% by weight. Extraction of caffeine from beans, nuts or leaves can be performed using various organic solvents, such as benzene or chloroform.
Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant and is consumed to reduce physical fatigue, by delaying or preventing sleep. The drug is used to improve task performance. It also produces respiratory and myocardial stimulation, diuresis and coronary vessel dilatation. The amount of caffeine needed to produce these effects varies from person to person, depending on body size and degree of tolerance. Effects begin about 1 h after administration and the drug is active for 3 to 4 h.
Only a few fatal caffeine intoxication cases have been reported in the medical literature. Death due to caffeine overdose is rare, due in part to its marked gastric irritation resulting in spontaneous emesis. Most of these cases are suicides and a recent review has demonstrated that, despite being an addictive substance and potentially fatal in higher doses, caffeine was still a rare factor in a number of studies concerning its relation with suicide attempts and death.
So, how can someone commit suicide using caffeine? Let me tell you the story of Mr K, aged 48, who was found sweating by his partner at 11:50 in his apartment. She immediately called the Emergency Unit to ask for support. At the phone, the physician on duty indicated her to give a pill of Lysanxia (prazepam) to decrease the level of stress of the victim. However, the clinical situation worsened and he was taken to the hospital at 1:00 am. At his arrival at 1:28 am he was in cardiac arrest. Despite intensive resuscitation manoeuvres, death was pronounced at 2:30 am. At home, an empty plastic bag with a 100 g caffeine label was found. The drug was bought via Internet 6 months earlier. External body examination and autopsy revealed the lack of any traumatic injury.
At home, an empty plastic bag with a 100 g caffeine label was found. The drug was bought via Internet 6 months earlier. The day before the suicide, the subject was surfing on the Internet to get information about the toxicity of caffeine. The man wanted to commit suicide by hanging 13 years before this attempt.
Conclusion
Despite the low incidence of caffeine toxicity, the availability of caffeine-containing drugs, including over-the-counter stimulant products and energy drinks, raises serious questions regarding the possible risk of caffeine overdose. Increasingly being sold as a dietary supplement, many people, particularly those in the health and fitness community, where it is touted as a fitness and building aid, are consuming anhydrous caffeine on a regular basis.
Suicide is dangerous, and suicidal individuals will attempt to kill themselves using ways that might not seem harmful to others. Communication, support and appreciation are key. If you see someone who looks like they have suicidal intentions, you should step in as carefully as possible to handle the situation before it is too late.
