The number of people committing suicide in the North has risen since the end of the Troubles according to new research.
The study, carried out by the University of Ulster and the Department of Psychiatry at the Mater Hospital Trust, reveals that the troubles may have actually kept suicide levels down for more than thirty years.
The researchers believe that the civil unrest may have strengthen social bonds within communities and "buffered" individuals from thoughts of taking their own lives.
The trends in suicide rates and terrorist related deaths in the North from 1966 to 1999 were examined and a direct relationship between the two was found.
During the worst years of violence the number of people committing suicide fell significantly and now that there is relative peace, suicide is on the rise.
"When people come together to confront a general threat they tend to think less about themselves as individuals and more of the common cause, so suicidal thoughts may be pushed to the back of their minds," explains report author Iain McGowan, nursing lecturer at the University of Ulster.
"We believe that civil unrest led to extreme polarization of communities and the ghettoisation of large parts of Northern Ireland, these ghettos becoming an oasis for the population resident in them, and ''no-go'' areas for outsiders," he explained. "In effect, polarized political civil unrest has the potential to foster and develop a sense of community in these pockets, drawn together by a common desire to survive together and a perceived sense of injustice."
Mr McGowan concluded that this appears to have buffered the population from psychiatric morbidity and protected them from suicide.
The lowest year for suicide deaths was 1972 when 47 people took their own lives. This coincided with the highest homicide toll when 497 people were killed.