A simple measurement of the sweat gland activity of a depressed person can determine if he or she is suicidal - with 97 per cent accuracy. Now another large clinical study confirms the correlation.
Blood pressure, blood circulation and activity in the sweat glands of the fingers can reveal if a person is suicidal.
"The results are so strong that I'm astonished", says Lars-Håkan Thorell, associate professor in experimental psychiatry at Linköping University, one of the researchers behind the study. "We can determine very accurately whether a person risks committing suicide, which can revolutionise suicide prevention."