Parasiticide in Europe: the WHO/EURO multicentre study on parasuicide. I. Introduction and preliminary analysis for 1989

Abstract

The WHO/EURO multicentre study on parasuicide is a new, coordinated, multinational, European study that covers two broad areas of research: monitoring trends in the epidemiology of parasuicide (epidemiological monitoring study); and follow-up investigations of parasuicide populations, with a view to identifying the social and personal characteristics predictive of future suicidal behaviour (repetition prediction project). This article provides background information on the development and organization of the multicentre study, and presents selected findings from the epidemiological monitoring project, based on a preliminary examination of data collected in 15 centres on parasuicides aged 15 years and over treated in health facilities in defined catchment areas during the year 1989. The overall parasuicide incidence varied considerably across the centres, from a high (event) rate of 414 per 100,000 males in Helsinki to a low of 61 among males in Leiden. The highest female event rate was 595 in Pontoise, and the lowest 95 in Guipuzcoa. The mean event rate across all centres was 167 among males and 222 among females. Parasuicide incidence tended to be elevated among 15- to 34-year-olds, with lowest rates among those aged 55 years and over. With one exception (Helsinki), the female parasuicide rate was higher than the male rate, the F:M ratio ranging from 0.71:1 to 2.15:1, with a median of 1.5:1 (events). Short-term repetition rates (as measured by the event:person ratio) differed between centres, from 1.03 to 1.30 (median = 1.12) among males, and from 1.07 to 1.26 (median = 1.13) among females. Although we warn against generalizing from our findings to make statements about differences in parasuicide between countries, we argue that the differences between centres are valid and should be addressed in further research.

Perfil das tentativas de suicídio por sobredose intencional de medicamentos atendidas por um Centro de Controle de Intoxicações do Paraná, Brasil

“…A OMS define tentativa de suicídio como um ato de conseqüên-cias não fatais no qual o indivíduo inicia deliberadamente um comportamento que lhe causará ARTIGO ARTICLE dano, se não houver intervenção de outrem, ou, deliberadamente, ingere uma substância em excesso face à habitual prescrição ou uso terapêu-tico reconhecido, a fim de provocar alterações desejadas por ele mesmo, a partir de conseqüên-cias reais ou esperadas 6 . Em uma análise de vinte publicações de diferentes países sobre o assunto, Welch 7 constatou que as taxas de tentativas de suicídio variam de 2,6 a 542 por 100 mil habitantes, sendo o grupo de risco constituído de indiví-duos jovens, principalmente do sexo feminino.…”

Methods used for parasuicide: results of the WHO/EURO Multicentre Study on Parasuicide

“…Because of di ering age distributions, the data were age adjusted, using the Standard European Population (see Platt et al 1992). Frequencies were calculated by univariate frequency tables and multivariate crosstabulations for multiple response items, using SPSS-b.1 (1988).…”

“…A list of the participating centres can be found in the Appendix. The background to the study has been described by Platt et al (1992), Kerkhof et al (1994) and Schmidtke et al (1996). An important aspect of this study is that the data are based on geographically de®ned catchment areas, which allows the frequencies of parasuicide to be related to the population data of these areas.…”

The involvement of alcohol in hospital-treated self-harm and associated factors: findings from two national registries

“…Both registries define self-harm as "an act with non-fatal outcome in which an individual deliberately initiates a non-habitual behaviour, that without intervention from others will cause self-harm, or deliberately ingests a substance in excess of the prescribed or generally recognised therapeutic dosage, and which is aimed at realising changes that the person desires via the actual or expected physical consequences". [10] The National Self-Harm Registry Ireland is operated by the National Suicide Research For the purposes of this study, alcohol involvement was defined as the intake of alcohol prior to or during the act of self-harm. The involvement of alcohol was recorded in a systematic way by the data registration officers, according to the standard operating procedures.…”