Methodological problems in suicide research.

Suicidal Ideation and the Residual Capacity to Promote Inclusive Fitness: A Survey

“…The data may also be biased by inaccuracies in self‐perceptions, individual differences in item interpretation and carelessness in answering items. Nevertheless, given the inherent difficulties in studying completed suicide (see Douglas, 1967; Neuringer, 1962), this tactic for examining suicidal motivation may be valuable insofar as the findings it yields converge with those of research tactics. Consider, for example, the recent data of Maris (1981), examining multiple correlates of suicide by surveying coroners' informants for suicides in Cook County, Illinois and comparing such data to information gathered on suicide attempters and individuals dying from natural causes.…”

Comparison of suicide notes and parasuicide notes

“…The prevailing view has long been that attempters and completers are two different, though overlapping, populations, and that little can be learned about completed suicides by studying attempted suicides in isolation (Lester, 1970). However, the availability of individuals who attempted suicide for taking questionnaires and participating in interviews has led to the use of parasuicides as "substitute" subjects (Neuringer, 1962). Lester, Beck and Trexler (1975) suggested that dividing a group of suicidal subjects by the seriousness of their suicidal intent would permit identification of features that might increase (or decrease) linearly with increasing suicidal intent.…”

Suicide Prediction

“…Perhaps the greatest problem for suicide investigators has been the lack of an adequate, widely accepted definition of suicide, without which there can be no clear-cut, standardized criteria to evaluate whether a death is a suicide (Douglas, 1967;Neuringer, 1962;Stengel & Farberow, 1968). Although there is no accepted definition, there are some more or less widely accepted definitional elements.…”

“…Therefore, it is necessary to ascertain the victim's intentions just prior to his death in order t o establish a suicide. This is a formidable task because of the inaccessibility of the predeath thoughts of the victim (Neuringer, 1962;Stengel & Cook, 1958). Another problem for investigators has been the discovery of errors in official suicide statistics resulting from the inefficiency and unreliability of the collectors and recorders of the data (Brown & Sheran, 1971;McCarthy & Walsh, 1966).…”