Relationships between suicidal ideation and psychosocial factors among residents living in Nagano Prefecture of Japan

Abstract

Our findings suggest a need for tailored intervention targeting individuals at risk by gatekeepers to encourage individuals at risk to overcome feeling ashamed for seeking help and to cultivate an appropriate person to confide in.

The Relationship between Attitudes toward Suicide and Family History of Suicide in Nagano Prefecture, Japan

“…In our study, the people who had experienced a FRND suicide tended to accept both attitudes “inevitable belief” and “unpreventable belief”, whereas those who had experienced a FAM suicide tended to accept only attitude “inevitable belief”. We found in our companion report [ 11 ] that suicidal ideation was significantly associated with feeling ashamed for seeking help when distressed among residents in Nagano Prefecture of Japan. On the other hand, the rate of participants agreeing with attitude #5 about not suicide pact was much smaller than the agreement rates for the other five attitudes, suggesting that there was no sympathetic attitude among the participants toward suicide pact, regardless of whether they had experienced anyone’s suicide during their lifetimes.…”

“…Details of the study design have been published in our companion paper [ 11 ]. The anonymous questionnaire that we used was originally designed to examine mental health problems linked to suicide among residents of Nagano Prefecture.…”

“…The protocol of the survey including the procedure to obtain the informed consent was approved and implemented by the Committee. This study and protocol including the procedure to obtain the informed consent from the participants were also approved by the Ethics Review Committee of Shinshu University School of Medicine [ 11 ]. The ethical approval code from the Ethics Review Committee of Shinshu University School of Medicine for our study is 3147.…”

“…This grief [ 5 , 9 ] and stigma [ 7 ] hinder the bereaved’s efforts to seek help and may inhibit other people from offering support, thereby raising the threshold for death by suicide among the bereaved [ 1 ]. We reported in our companion paper [ 11 ] that suicidal ideation was significantly associated with the feeling ashamed for seeking help when distressed, indicating a possible decrease in the threshold for suicidal behaviors, such as suicidal ideation, among the bereaved.…”