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Genetic Factors in Suicide Suicide, like so much else in psychiatry, tends to run in families. For example, Margaux Hemingway recently committed suicide. This attracted media attention, not only because she was the granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, himself a suicide victim. Suicide was no stranger to the Hemingway family. Ernest’s brother, sister, and father all committed suicide. Thus, there have been five suicides in the Hemingway family over four generations. Family histories, like the Hemingway’s, lead us to question if suicide is caused by some genetic component. This curiosity has led many to explore the possibilities behind suicide. The have explored through clinical, twin, and adoption studies and finally from molecular genetic studies. Thro