Gender and suicide in the elderly.

Gender is one of the most important predictors of suicide in the elderly. In North America, older women are less likely to be suicidal than older men. So far, suicidologists have either ignored gender differences or have focused on the presumed causes of older men's suicidal behavior. In this paper, the focus is on older women's low rates of suicidal mortality. On the basis of a review of the literature, several hypotheses are suggested. One is that gender differences in suicide mortality reflect differences in coping. Another hypothesis is that gender differences are influenced by gender norms of suicidal behavior. Directions for prevention are proposed.     

Farewell to the world: suicide notes from Turkey

There has been limited study of suicide in Islamic countries. This paper marks the first study of suicide notes in Turkey, an Islamic country. Using a classification scheme, 49 suicide notes (a rate of 34.5%) were studied. The results show that note writers do not differ greatly from other suicides. Further analysis of younger (<40) and older (>40) suicide note writers reveal few significant differences. Our results, together with the results of classification studies in different countries, suggest that caution is in order in transposing findings from one country to other countries. Future study of suicide notes should, in fact, focus on cross-cultural investigation.     

Exponential fitting of suicide rate and national intelligence estimates

Positive ecological (group-level) associations of Lynn and Vanhanen's 2002 national intelligence (IQ) estimates with the suicide rates of men and women across 85 countries and with the suicide rates of the male, female, and total elderly population across 48 Eurasian countries reported recently is extended by the finding that this ecological association was notedly better accounted for by exponential fitting than by linear fitting. This evidence implies that the effect of a shift in the national IQ on the suicide rate is proportional, not absolute. As a rule of thumb, a 5-point shift in national IQ roughly corresponds to a 50% change in the national suicide rate.     

Restrictions in means for suicide: an effective tool in preventing suicide: the Danish experience

Restriction of means for suicide is an important part of suicide preventive strategies in different countries. The effect on method-specific suicide rate and overall suicide rate of restrictions on availability of carbon monoxide, barbiturates, and dextropropoxyphene was examined. From 1970 to 2000, overall suicide mortality and method-specific suicide mortality in Denmark were compared with official information about availability of barbiturates and analgesics and carbon monoxide in vehicle exhaust and household gas. Restrictions on availability of household gas with carbon monoxide content and barbiturates was associated with a decline in the number of suicides and suicides by self-poisoning with these compounds after controlling for the effect of calender year. Restricted access occurred concomittantly with a 55 percent decrease in suicide rate.     

Error management theory: a new perspective on biases in cross-sex mind reading

A new theory of cognitive biases, called error management theory (EMT), proposes that psychological mechanisms are designed to be predictably biased when the costs of false-positive and false-negative errors were asymmetrical over evolutionary history. This theory explains known phenomena such as men's overperception of women's sexual intent, and it predicts new biases in social inference such as women's underestimation of men's commitment. In Study 1 (N = 217), the authors documented the commitment underperception effect predicted by EMT. In Study 2 (N = 289), the authors replicated the commitment bias and documented a condition in which men's sexual overperception bias is corrected. Discussion contrasts EMT with the heuristics and biases approach and suggests additional testable hypotheses based on EMT.     

A novel integrated knowledge explanation of factors leading to suicide

Psycho-social and biological theories of suicide are sometimes presented in a dichotomous manner. It is hypothesised that there is a base rate of suicide in all communities which is influenced not only by biological factors, but also by psycho-social factors. However, various countries or specific groups or regions within a country whose suicide rate diverges significantly from this base rate do so predominantly because of psycho-social factors. This theory has practical implications in terms of where certain countries or regions should focus their suicide prevention programmes.     

National intelligence and suicide rate across Europe: an alternative test using educational attainment data

National mean scores on a historical knowledge test (taken as a proxy for intelligence), stemming from representative samples of male (and female) 9th-grade school students from 26 European countries in a 1999 report by Wilberg and Lynn, were significantly positively associated with the national male (and female) suicide rates, independent of the general quality-of-living conditions in these countries. This finding replicates previous evidence from cross-national studies (by Lester and by Voracek), of a correspondence of higher national IQ to higher suicide rates, with an alternative measure of national IQ that is independent of the national IQ estimates recently published by Lynn and Vanhanen which have been used in prior studies.     

The epidemiology of suicide and attempted suicide

Since more than one century suicides have been registered in national statistics of death causes. They thus furnish one of the few parameters of psychiatrically relevant behaviour by means of which trends, cohort, age-group and period effects can be studied over longer periods. Since the second half of last century, the suicide rates for Swiss males--similar to those found in England and Wales--show a decrease in consecutive birth cohorts up to males born in the decade 1930-1940, and a continued decline in the total trend until about World War II. From then on the suicide rates of males in consecutive birth cohorts have been slowly increasing in the majority of European and North American countries--but not so in Sweden. Opposite to this, the predominantly low rates for females display little change. Further to the considerable differences between nations and the predominance of suicides committed by females in some Asian countries and Cuba, the changes indicate the significance of cultural and economic environmental factors. Typical period effects are mainly the result of changes in conception and conditions of life. In attempted suicide they proceed in a more sensitive and more rapid way and are about ten times higher. Such a period effect showing increases by about 300% in younger age-groups followed by a decline, attaining its peak about 1976, was ascertained in large cities of the Federal Republic of Germany. By the example of the effects of a television serial, the study of causal processes turning collective environmental factors into individual suicidal behaviour, proved that regularities are effective in learning by a process of modelling. Besides, the epidemiological data give essential hints how to treat suicidal behaviour.     

Regional variation in suicide and homicide

Violence in American cities was examined by classifying each city as high versus low in its homicide rate and high versus low in its suicide rate. Four groups of cities were identified on the basis of this classification, and their characteristics were explored. Differences were found in crime rates, poverty, population density, racial composition, latitude, and longitude. The implications of the results were examined.     

Ancestry, genes, and suicide: a test of the Finno-Ugrian Suicide Hypothesis in the United States

There is now convergent evidence from classic quantitative genetics (family, twin, and adoption studies) and molecular genetic studies for specific genetic risk factors for suicidal behavior. This emerging research field has recently been supplemented by geographical studies concerned with the Finno-Ugrian Suicide Hypothesis (FUSH), which states that population differences in genetic risk factors may partially account for conspicuous geographical patterns seen in suicide prevalence. In particular, the European high-suicide-rate nations constitute a contiguous, J-shaped belt, spanning from Finland to Austria. This area maps onto the second principal component identified for European gene distribution, most likely reflecting a major migration event of the past (i.e., the ancestral adaptation to cold climates and the Uralic language dispersion) still detectable in modern European populations. The present research tested the hypothesis in the United States. Consistent with the hypothesis, available historical (1913-1924 and 1928-1932) U.S. state suicide rates were uniformly positively associated with available state proportions of reported American ancestries from European high-suicide-rate countries (Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, and the Ukraine). However, contrary to the hypothesis, available contemporary (1990-1994) suicide rates were uniformly negatively associated with these ancestry proportions. The findings of this first test outside Europe are therefore conflicting. A proposal based on the geographical study approach is offered to further the progress of investigations into the genetics of suicide.     

Relationship of IQ to suicide and homicide rate: an international perspective

IQs were correlated with the z score of suicide rate minus z score of homicide rate using nine regions of the world--established market economies, formerly socialized Europe, India, China, other Asian nations, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, Middle East Crescent, and the USA. Correlations were .85 and .83 with crude rates and age-adjusted rates, respectively. The homicide findings are consistent with previous research in individual countries showing that less intelligent persons commit homicide more often. However, the present findings of a positive correlation between IQ and suicide rates are the opposite of what has been found in the more definitive studies within countries. Explanations for the apparent paradox and for the findings more generally were offered.     

Active school travel is associated with fewer suicide attempts among adolescents from low-and middle-income countries

Background/Objective: This study explored the association between active school travel (AST) and suicide attempts among adolescents in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Method: We used the data from the Global School-based Health Survey, including 127,097 adolescents aged 13-17 years from 34 LMICs. A self-reported survey was used to collect data on AST and suicide attempts as well as some variables. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to assess the association between AST and suicide attempts. A meta-analysis with random effects was undertaken to identify the difference in the association between AST and suicide attempts. Results: Across all the adolescents, the prevalence of AST was 37% and the prevalence of suicide attempts was 11.60%. Adolescents who engaged in AST were less likely to have suicide attempts irrespective of gender. The country-wise analysis indicated a large inconsistency in the association between AST and suicide attempt across the countries. Conclusions: AST would appear to be a protective factor for reducing suicide attempts among adolescents. However, the association between AST and suicide attempts varied greatly across the countries. Future studies should confirm the association between AST and suicide attempts.     

Differences in nonfatal suicide behaviors among Mexican and European American middle school children.

This report describes ethnic and gender differences in suicide ideation among two large samples of middle school students in New Mexico (n = 2,140) and Texas (n = 1,302). Students completed a self-administered questionnaire on suicide ideation and psychosocial risk factors. Mexican Americans in both samples reported significantly higher prevalence of suicide ideation than did their European American counterparts. Mexican Americans were 1.8 times more likely to have high suicide ideation than European Americans. The suicide ideation risk for Mexican Americans remained unchanged in both samples after adjusting for gender, age, family structure, depression, low social support, and self-esteem. This study indicates that ethnicity plays an important role in suicidal ideation, but the mechanism remains unclear.     

Suicide and suicide attempts in the European Economic Community: an analysis of trends, with special emphasis upon trends among the young

An attempt is made to explain the increase in adolescent suicidal behavior reported for most countries in the European Economic Community over the last two decades, within the framework of a social learning theory. A typology of suicidal acts based on an outcome-expectancy model is proposed that would make intelligible the observed positive correlation between the incidence of lethal and nonlethal suicidal acts, the latter having grown to epidemic proportions among the young. This epidemic can be attributed to the interplay of three groups of factors, namely, the socialization of a specific problem-solving behavior repertoire, socioeconomic conditions, and attitudes toward suicide. The implications for suicide prevention are briefly discussed.     

13 Perspective: Suicide in Europe

In many European countries, suicidal behavior constitutes a major public and mental health problem. In most countries, the number of suicides is significantly higher than the number of deaths due to traffic accidents. According to official figures, the suicide rates among European countries differ widely; for example, Hungary has the highest rates. Suicide attempt rates, based on data from the WHO/Euro Multicentre project on Parasuicide, equally show variation; for example, the highest average rate of suicide attempts is for Helsinki, Finland. This paper outlines the epidemiological findings and then presents some hypotheses (e.g., age, ethnic difference) to explain the differences.     

Suicidal behavior in Italy: data, trends and guidelines for a suicide intervention/prevention policy.

Even though in Italy, as in the majority of Mediterranean countries, the increase in suicide rates is not among the highest in Europe, between 1969 and 1989 it showed a sharp upswing (+43% among males and +31% among females). In terms of geographical differences, the regions with the highest suicide rate are the northern ones (up to twice the national average). The age groups with the highest suicide risk are those over 74 years (in 1989 the rate among males over 65 was the highest of all: 31.3 per 100,000). The differences in the between-sexes distribution show that among females over 65 years old the suicide rate rose by 70% between 1974 and 1989, versus 77% for males of the same age. The preliminary epidemiological results of one of two Italian centers are presented. These centers are collaborating with the WHO/EURO Multicenter Study on Parasuicide; parasuicide rates are higher for females than for males (55.9 per 100,000, as against 38.1 for males), while the age group at highest risk is seen to be young women (15-24 years), with a specific rate of 115.6.     

A thematic comparison of suicide notes drawn from Northern Ireland and the United States

Suicide is a global concern hence cross-cultural research ought to be central to national suicide prevention strategies. This study sought to investigate suicide notes drawn from Northern Ireland and the United States as these countries have broadly similar suicide rates but markedly different cultures. A theoretical-conceptual analysis of sixty suicide notes drawn from these countries, matched for age and sex, was undertaken based on a thematic model of suicide developed by Leenaars (1996) across countries. The results suggested that there were more psychological commonalities than differences. Two differences emerged which suggested that aspects of the interpersonal components may be more salient in Northern Irish rather than American suicides. It is argued that more wide-ranging cross-cultural studies are required to enhance our ability to identify and predict those most at risk from suicide.     

A thematic comparison of suicide notes drawn from Northern Ireland and the United States

Suicide is a global concern hence cross-cultural research ought to be central to national suicide prevention strategies. This study sought to investigate suicide notes drawn from Northern Ireland and the United States as these countries have broadly similar suicide rates but markedly different cultures. A theoretical-conceptual analysis of sixty suicide notes drawn from these countries, matched for age and sex, was undertaken based on a thematic model of suicide developed by Leenaars (1996) across countries. The results suggested that there were more psychological commonalities than differences. Two differences emerged which suggested that aspects of the interpersonal components may be more salient in Northern Irish rather than American suicides. It is argued that more wide-ranging cross-cultural studies are required to enhance our ability to identify and predict those most at risk from suicide.     

Attempted suicide among Iranian population

Predictors of suicide attempts in Iran, to distinguish any similarities and differences of these predictors between suicide attempts in Iran and other developed and developing countries and to investigate the relation between general psychiatric symptoms and repetition of suicidal attempts were assessed. The validated Farsi version of the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) was used to assess multiple dimensions of quality of life of suicide attempters as depression, anxiety, social dysfunction, and somatic symptoms. Pivotal differences emerged in the clinical profiles of suicide attempters living in a developing country versus developed countries. In developing countries, those who attempt suicides are more likely to have no psychiatric disorder and are less likely to have used alcohol as part of the suicide attempt, but are more likely to have been assaulted physically or verbally. The results on the GHQ-28 indicate that the process through which individuals move from suicidal thought to action may decrease multiple dimensions of quality of life.     

The Relationship of Job Attribute Preferences to Employment, Hours of Paid Work, and Family Responsibilities: An Analysis Comparing Women and Men

We used 1997 International Social Survey Programme data from 14 countries to examine the relationship of job attribute preferences to family responsibilities, employment, and paid work hours. Separate regression analyses for women and men examined whether family responsibilities (marriage, children, spousal employment, and housework responsibility) predicted job attribute preferences. Many family responsibilities were significant predictors of men's and women's extrinsic and intrinsic preferences. Family responsibilities also predicted women's flexibility preferences. We next examined whether job attribute preferences were associated with employment and weekly paid work hours when family responsibilities were controlled. Job attribute preferences showed several significant relationships to women's and men's employment and several significant relationships to women's paid work hours.