In a period of economical crisis who is at risk for attempted suicide?

Abstract

IntroductionAccording to Durkheim's theory, suicide attempts increase during periods of rapid economic changes and decrease again when stability is achieved, due to the social integration in the community guaranteed by occupational status. Since 2009 in Europe, it was observed an increase in the suicide rates, in line with the increase of unemployment. Although unemployment is considered a risk factor for suicide, it was observed a noticeable increase in suicide rates among Italian employed men during the last years, probably related to the specific economic scenario and to emerging difficulties in keeping an income to adequately maintain one's own family standard of living.AimTo study attempted suicides with a specific focus and attention on the current Italian economic scenario.MethodsDeterminants of emergency room visits for psychiatric reasons in patients aged > 16 years were studied prospectively from 2008 to 2015 at the AOU Maggiore della Carità Hospital, Novara, Italy. Each patient was assessed by an experienced psychiatrist with a clinical interview and socio-demographic and clinical features were gathered. Statistical significance was set at P ≤ 0.05.ResultsPreliminary results suggest an increase in suicide attempts according to the rise of the unemployment rate in Novara. Although in absolute figures most attempters are unemployed, it seems that suicide attempts are more frequent in the group of employed subjects, which includes also people under redundancy fund. This subgroup may be considered halfway between employed and unemployed attempters.ConclusionsData collection and statistical analyses are still ongoing. Implications for clinical practice will be discussed.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Seasonality of Suicides among Victims Who Are under the Influence of Alcohol

“…The risk of suicide is estimated at 4% in patients with mood disorders, 7–18% in patients with alcohol dependence [7,8,9], 8% in patients with bipolar affective disorder, and 5% in patients with schizophrenia. Suicide under the influence of alcohol and other psychoactive substances accounts for 25–50% of all suicide cases—the risk of suicide increasing with comorbidities of psychiatric disorders.…”

Application of Data Analytics for Prediction of Suicide Rates at the State and National Levels

“…The conclusion suggested by this outcome is that unemployment alone is not associated with suicide rates rather a loss in economic opportunity is associated with suicide rate (Noh, 2009). In recently published papers by Fountoulakis, Coppola, and others a relationship between suicide and unemployment was observed (Fountoulakis et al, 2015;Coppola et al, 2016). The literature suggests that unemployment should be included in this paper's model; however, attention should be given to what other factors may interact with it.…”