Antoon Leenaars

Suicide trends in eight predominantly English-speaking countries 1960–1989

Suicide rates between 1960 and 1989 were explored for eight predominantly English speaking countries with similar national characteristics. New World countries showed significant similarities but differed from Old World countries. The two North American (NA) New World countries showed more similarity to each other than the two Australasian New World countries. The NA countries showed an unique plateau in the 1980s for males aged 15–29 years. Old World males of all ages showed common rises, suggesting a partial sex-specific influence in the young. However, trends among the 15-to 19-year-olds were significantly different to trensas among the 20-to 29-year-olds in both sexes suggesting a substantial youth-related contribution to the rises. Rates among 15-to 19-year-old females rose in the early 1960s, ahead of males but in parallel with rises among older females, suggesting part of the rise was sex-as opposed to age-related. Although rates among the 15- to 19-year-old females showed little change since 1970, this may be partly a function of sex-related improvements—observable in older females — disguising unfavourable youth-related influences. Possible aetiological factors are suggested but remain speculative. Studies of other nations with common cultural characteristics may clarify trends and aetiological issues. Care should be taken to differentiate sex-from age-related influences.

Suicide Notes in India: What Do They Tell Us?

Over 100,000 people commit suicide each year in India; yet, there has been limited micro-based study. This study marks the first study of suicide notes in India. The sample consisted of all available note-writers (n = 50), with a comparative sample of non-note writers (n = 50) of all suicides (n = 320, 16.47% of all postmortems) during a 1½ year period in the New Delhi area, India. Using the demographic (descriptive) schema of Ho, Yip, Chiu, and Halliday (1998), the results show that note writers do not differ greatly from other suicides. Males wrote more notes, but the more intriguing finding is the fact that suicide in India is associated to an array of psychiatric/psychological and social factors.

Altruistic Suicide: A Few Reflections

In the last few centuries, science has become arithmetic, tabular, taxonomic, to explain living creatures, chemical elements and even diseases of the mind. Emile Durkheim attempted to do the same with his enduring volume, Suicide: A Study of Sociology, first published in 1897. Durkheim showed that suicide could be divided into an order: egoistic, altruistic, anomic and fatalistic—here, we focus on the question, who is the altruistic suicide? Durkheims additional question is raised: When is a motive praiseworthy and when not—when to be called altruistic or heroic, and when terrorist? Further study is warranted—and thus, this opening editorial to an array of studies on the topic, from antiquity to the Christian martyrs into this century, to the act of Sati in India, to the suicide bomber in the Moslem world.

Suicide in India, 1995-1999

The epidemiology of suicide in India from 1995-1999 was presented. The data show an increasing incidence of suicide; over 100,000 people commit suicide each year in India. The ratio of male|female is small by international comparisons. Illness and interpersonal|familial factors appear to be common motives, although suicide is more complex in India. Further, it is concluded that Indias data may well be problematic, being overly based on police records and that a much greater micro study to identify the multideterminant factors of suicide in India is needed.

Suicide in the United Kingdom and Ireland

The purpose of this study was to compare epidemiological trends in suicide for the three regions of the United Kingdom (England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland) and for Ireland from 1960 to 1990. The data on suicide rates were obtained from the World Health Organization statistical base, supplemented by data from the statistical offices of the four regions. While the suicide rates in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland increased during the period under study, English/Welsh suicide rates first declined and then held steady. In Ireland, both male and female suicide rates increased, whereas in the other regions only male suicide rates rose. According to age, in England and Wales, suicide rates rose for male teenagers and young males, while for the other regions male suicide rates increased in general for all age groups. Social indicators (unemployment, marriage and birth rates) were quite successful in predicting male suicide rates in all four regions and in predicting female suicide rates in England and Wales and in Ireland. The results emphasize the importance of studying several regions in epidemiological studies in order to identify which trends are general and which are unique to one nation. In the present study, the epidemiological trends for suicide in England and Wales were quite different from those in the other three regions. In particular, the steady overall suicide rate in England and Wales and the rising suicide rate for young males alone differ from the trends observed in the other regions and raise importante questions about the causes of the social suicide rate in these four regions.

Menstruation and suicide: a histopathological study.

BACKGROUND Previous research, albeit limited, has reported mixed findings on the impact of menstruation cycle on suicidal behavior. The contribution of menstruation to completed suicide is also controversial; the studies are, in fact, very limited and are not carefully designed. AIMS To examine whether the menstruation cycle impacts on suicide. METHODS In order to explore this relationship, 56 autopsies on completed suicides in females were performed and matched to a control group of 44 females who had died from other causes, at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. Histopathological examination, a method of collecting tissue from the uterus through biopsy, was used to determine the stage of the menstrual cycle. RESULTS The results show that 25% of women who had died by suicide were menstruating at the time, compared to 4.5% of the control group; this is statistically (chi2) significant at the p < .002 level. CONCLUSIONS Menstruation in the women who completed suicide, compared to a control group, appeared to have an association, though more research is warranted. Not only there are serious methodological problems in the study of menstruation and suicide (largely because of problematic tissue storage and examination), but also because of the need to understand the impact within a larger psychological, social, and cultural frame.

Altruistic suicides: are they the same or different from other suicides?

Suicidology is not alone in wrestling with the question, ‘who are the altruistic suicides?’ A review of a series of studies published in Archives of Suicide Research, suggests that maybe they are not different from other suicides. They are suicides; a case study of a “martyr” note reveals a suicide note. Emile Durkheims sociological taxonomy suggests that the difference is probably on the outside, the social world. Yet, who decides what is honorable or not? Who are the suicide bombers? Martyrs? Terrorists? It appears that society(ies) defines the event, probably not the psychological aspects of the suicide(s). More research is, however, needed, but there are many obstacles to such study.

Suicide in the School-Age Child and Adolescent

Both children and adolescents do commit suicide. Although suicide is rare in children younger than age 12, it occurs with greater frequency than most people imagine. The youngest child that we are aware of was 4. Suicide is also all too frequent in adolescents. Many countries saw a striking rise in suicide in this age group between the 1950s and the late 1970s. Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Holland, Israel, Japan, United States, West Germany, and others have all reported high rates by 1980, although the rate of suicide has leveled off in some countries (e.g., Canada, United States). Boys traditionally have a higher rate of completed suicide than girls in adolescence, but in childhood the reported rates are higher in girls. Lester and McIntosh elsewhere in this book have presented the demographic data.

Sylvia Plath: A Protocol Analysis of her Last Poems

Personal documents have a significant place in psychological research. Suicide notes, diaries, novels, poems, and so on allow us to better understand the suicidal mind. The works of Sylvia Plath--a poet who killed herself at age 30--are prime examples for such protocol study. This article examines the last 6 months of Plaths poetry, revealing a suicidal malaise. Associating the results to the lives of Cesare Pavese and the case study of Natalie, a Terman-Shneidman subject of the intellectually gifted, the study shows a unit thema that facilitates the process of death. The poems reveal such themes as unbearable pain, loss, and abandonment that likely contributed significantly to death becoming the only solution.