UNAM specialists seek to detect suicidal ideas

The objective of this project is to locate people who are looking to self-attempt. According to an analysis presented by the Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) in 2021, in 2020 there were 7,818 deaths from self-inflicted injuries in Mexico, representing 0.7% of total deaths in the year and a suicide rate of 6.2% per 100,000 inhabitants.

According to the same institution, the suicide rate increased markedly in men and women aged 18 to 29 years, with 10.7 deaths per 100,000 people recorded. While the states of the Mexican Republic that showed the highest percentage were Chihuahua with 14.0%, Aguascalientes with 11.1% and Yucatan with 10.2%.

According to the National Health Survey (ENSANUT), it revealed that during 2020, 1,150 girls, boys or adolescents in Mexico decided to commit suicide, that is, an average of three cases per day.

The figures are alarming, for this reason, teams of UNAM researchers led by Gerardo Sierra Martínez, head of the Linguistic Engineering group of the Institute of Engineering (II), and Patricia Andrade Palos, a postgraduate academic at the Faculty of Psychology, developed this project.

But why is it based on social media? , people currently spend a lot of time on social networks, in fact, in some cases, these platforms have driven suicide, not only in Mexico, but in the world. According to the Higher Institute of Psychological Studies, suicidal behavior on social networks has been seen more regularly in recent years.

A study by the Federal Agency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), showed that there is a relationship between exponential use of social networks and increased suicide. That is why this research focused on these platforms.

On the other hand, a study carried out by the Annie Intelligence App, in the country the number one social network to be used the most is Facebook, apparently the average user spends around 29.6 hours a month using the application, however, what he consumes most are news and entertainment publications.

In contrast, 65% of Facebook users are under 35 years of age. That is, a large percentage of those who use this social network are young millennials and centennials.

This project proposed an investigation of the lexicon in Facebook and Twitter users, this allowed researchers to make 2 groups: people at risk of suicide and people who post or comment on common topics.

Based on the analysis of the results, several programs were developed that allow information to be classified in a linguistic and psychological manner. Software was also designed, which allows continuous search and automation of information on social networks.

In an interview, Professor Gerardo Sierra Montiel of the UNAM Engineering Institute said that “the results of this project are unprecedented for the country and for the Mexican Spanish language”, however, he specified that more research is needed to confirm and expand the investigations on this phenomenon so that it can be improve and thus reduce suicidal ideas on social networks that often incite other people.

The first product of this research is developed in the article: “Suicide Risk Factors: A Language Analysis Approach in Social Media”, published in the Journal of Language and Social Psychology.

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