A Psychiatric Approach to the Diagnosis of Suicide and its Effect upon the Edinburgh Statistics

Ovenstone, Irene M. K.

doi:10.1192/bjp.123.1.15

Cited by 62 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The information from the official 27 reports was recorded on a prepared schedule. Additional data were collected on those deaths recorded as suicide by the Crown Counsel and other deaths where the circumstances pointed to suicide together with certain specified accidental deaths described elsewhere (Ovenstone, 1972). These data related to medical contacts, the family, and the personal and social background of the deceased.…”

Section: Methods Collection Of Suicide Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From all the assembled information the death was allotted to the category of suicide, accidental death, or 'undetermined', i.e., 'injury undetermined whether accidentally or purposely inflicted', according to certain criteria. These have been detailed in a separate paper (Ovenstone, 1972). Suicide was defined as a deliberate initiation of an act of self-poisoning or self-injury which resulted in death irrespective of whether there was evidence of intent to die.…”

Section: Methods Collection Of Suicide Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, of more fundamental importance is the question whether under-reporting materially alters the characteristics of the suicide population. On this issue, a previous paper put forward the rationale for adopting a psychiatric instead of a legal approach to the matter of diagnosis (Ovenstone, 1972). However, a comparison of the two methods carried out on a series of Edinburgh deaths revealed that, to all intents and purposes, the officially recorded suicides provided a representative picture.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Spectrum of suicidal behaviours in Edinburgh.

Ovenstone¹

1973

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health

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Until a few years ago, suicides and attempted suicides were regarded as a homogeneous group. Stengel, Cook, and Kreeger (1958) pointed out that they are two different but overlapping populations. The 'overlap' has been demonstrated by follow-up studies of attempted suicide which reveal only a small proportion who later committed suicide (0*3 % to 22% depending upon the duration of follow-up), and by retrospective studies on completed suicides showing that only a small proportion of these had made previous attempts (8 6 % to 333 % in any unselected and consecutive series of suicides) (Dorpat and Ripley, 1967). Investigation of the full spectrum of suicidal behaviour requires the integration of detailed data on both suicides and attempted suicides occurring in the same population over the same period of time. The majority of researchers have studied the two patterns of behaviour in different populations or in different areas or at different times with ensuing problems of interpretation. Those few studies making a contemporaneous comparison have been restricted by difficulties in representative sampling among the attempted suicide population (Schmid and Van Arsdol, 1955, in Seattle; Farberow and Schneidman, 1961, in Los Angeles; Stengel et al., 1958, in London; Ropschitz and Ovenstone, 1968, in Halifax). This occurred either because the studies were carried out at a time when suicidal behaviour was a legal offence, as in London and Seattle, and precautions would be taken to conceal all but the most serious attempts, or the data were based on hospitalized cases and therefore likely to be biased towards persons requiring admission. The Los Angeles study did, however, include cases notified to them by the community physicians (from whom they had a 70 % response) and achieved what they called 'a fair but undoubtably conservative figure' for attempted suicides occurring over their research period. Sampling presents less difficulty in Edinburgh as 98 % of all suicidal attempts sent to, or presenting at, hospitals in the area are admitted to the Regional Poisoning Treatment Centre (RPTC) no matter how trivial the attempt. It has been demonstrated that 80 % of the cases seen in general practice are also admitted and that the RPTC population is representative of those attempting suicide in Edinburgh (Kennedy, 1971).In most studies data relating to completed suicides have been obtained from coroners' records, which it is accepted under-report the problem.

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Section: Methods Collection Of Suicide Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methods Collection Of Suicide Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spectrum of suicidal behaviours in Edinburgh.

Ovenstone¹

1973

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health

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“…Twenty of the deaths occurred at stations (people stepping off station platforms or using pedestrian walkways between platforms), 21 at highway 5 The Ovenstone criteria is used in Britain to categorize "suspected suicides" when a coroner cannot make a conclusive determination of the decedent's motivation. It is derived from the work of Ovenstone (1973). Details of how the criteria are applied in Britain can be found in Appendix C of Gabree, Chase, Doucette and Coplen (2014).…”

Section: Classification Of Types Of Fatalitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of fatal train-pedestrian collisions in metropolitan Chicago 2004–2012

Savage

2016

Accident Analysis & Prevention

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The paper analyzes spatial and temporal data on fatal train-pedestrian collisions in the Chicago metropolitan area between 2004 and 2012. In comparing different municipalities within the region, the density of grade crossings and stations is found to increase the frequency of unintentional deaths. However, unintentional deaths do not increase with train volume suggesting that pedestrians may exercise more care around busier lines. The distribution of apparent intentional deaths is less strongly related to the density of crossings and stations suggesting that those intending self-harm will seek out a point of access. Apparent intentional deaths are more prevalent on lines with frequent passenger trains, and in municipalities with higher incomes and lower population densities. While most of the apparent intentional deaths (about 70%) are not associated with any copycat activities, the dataset contains possible clusters of intentional deaths that are proximate in both time and space. There was also a highlypublicized suicide that led to a 95% increase in apparent intentional deaths throughout the region in the 18 weeks following the incident.

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“…The other follow-up study, by Norvig and Nielsen,10 and the review by Kessel and Grossman were presented in terms of proportion of suicides to all cases (leaving out 46 women, 21% ofthe sample). The (13) 3 (33) 98 (40) 3 (33) 76 (30) 0 (0) 33 (13) JNumber represents mean duration of follow-up. §The data and suicide rate for this study apply to women only.…”

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confidence: 99%