Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T07:32:01.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An investigation of one hundred suicides

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Michael J Kelleher ,
Brendan Keohane ,
Paul Corcoran ,
Helen S Keeley  and
Stuart Neilson
Michael J Kelleher
Affiliation:
National Suicide Research Foundation, Perrott Avenue, College Road, Cork, Ireland
Brendan Keohane
Affiliation:
St Anne's Hospital, Shanakiel, Cork, Ireland
Stuart Neilson
Affiliation:
National Suicide Research Foundation, Perrott Avenue, College Road, Cork, Ireland.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objectives: This study examines the backgrounds of 100 people who died by suicide and whose cases were adjudicated on consecutively over a five-year period, by the two Cork City coroners.

Method: Five main sources of information were used; coroners, relatives, investigating police, general practitioners and hospital records. The cases were examined under the headings of age and gender differences; methods used; social circumstances; illness; treatment prior to death and previous attempts. Certain information may have been missed because peers were not interviewed. There were 72 males and 28 females.

Results: In the 15-44 age group, the male female ratio was 4:1; in those over 45 the ratio was almost equal. Men were more likely to be unmarried even when age differences were taken into account. All the women and all but seven of the men had a psychiatric diagnosis, but women were more than more likely to have received medical treatment in the year before their suicide than men (OR = 6.6). Thirty-seven had made at least one previous suicide attempt.

Conclusions: The study confirms that suicide, particularly for men is becoming more a young person's problem. Psychiatric illness is the single commonest association. Over a third of suicides had made a previous attempt. These findings point to the need to improve recognition of psychological distress and find effective methods to reduce parasuicide.

Keywords

SuicideYoung menPrecipitantsPredisposingTreatmentPrevention.
Type
Original Papers
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , September 2000 , pp. 86 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Irish National Task Force on Suicide. Interim Report. Dublin: Government Publications Sales Office, 1996. Final Report of Task Force 1998.Google Scholar
2.Daly, M, Kelleher, MJ. The increase in the suicide rate in Ireland. IMJ 1987; 80(8): 233–4.Google ScholarPubMed
3.Kelleher, MJ, Daly, M. Suicide in Cork and Ireland. Br J Psychiat 1987; 157: 533–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Walsh, D, Cullen, A, Cullivan, R, O'Donnell, B. Do statistics lie? Suicide in Kildare and in Ireland. Psychological Med 1990; 20: 867–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5.Kelleher, MJ, Corcoran, P, Keohane, B. Suicide, road traffic and cancer deaths among the young in Ireland. IMJ 1995; 88(3): 96–8.Google Scholar
6.Kelleher, MJ, Keeley, HS, Corcoran, P. The service implications of regional differences in suicide rates in the Republic of Ireland. IMJ 1997; 90(7): 262–4.Google ScholarPubMed
7.Shneidmen, ES, Farberow, NL. Sample investigations of equivocal deaths. In: NL, Farberow, ES, Schneidmen, eds. The cry for help. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961.Google Scholar
8.Robins, E, Murphy, JE, Wilkinson, RHet al.Some clinical considerations in the prevention of suicide based on a study of 134 successful suicides. Am J Public Health 1959; 49: 888–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9.Dorpat, TL, Ripley, HS. A study of suicide in the Seattle area. Comp Psychiatry 1960; 1: 349–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10.Barraclough, Bet al.A hundred cases of suicide: Clinical aspects. Br J Psychiat 1974; 125: 355–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11.Brent, DA. The psychological autopsy: methodological considerations for the study of adolescent suicides. Suicide Life-Threat Behav 1989; 19: 43–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12.Foster, T, Gillespie, K, McClelland, R. Mental disorders and suicide in Northern Ireland. Br J Psychiat 1997; 170: 447–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
13.O'Connor, RC, Sheehy, NP. Suicide and gender. Mortality 1997; 2(3): 239–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14.World Health Organisation. The ICD classification of mental and behavioural disorders: Clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines (CDDG). Geneva: WHO, 1992.Google Scholar
15.Kreitman, N, Casey, P. The repetition of parasuicide: an epidemiological and clinical study. Br J Psychiat 1988; 153: 792–800.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
16.Silverman, MM, Maris, RW. The prevention of suicidal behaviour: an overview. Suicide Life-Threatening Behaviour 1995; 25: 20–1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
17.Hawton, Ket al.Paracetamol self-poisoning — characteristics, prevention and harm reduction. Br J Psychiat 1996; 168: 43–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
18.Kelleher, MJ, Daly, M, Kelleher, MJA. The influence of anti-depressants in overdose on the increased suicide rate in Ireland between 1971 and 1988. Br J Psychiat 1992; 161: 625–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19.Rutz, W, von Knorring, L, Walinder, J. Long-term effects of an educational programme for general practitioners given by the Swedish Committee for the Prevention and Treatment of Depression. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 1992; 85: 83–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
20.Priest, RG. Improving the management and knowledge of depression. Br J Psychiat 1994; 164:284–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
21.Kelleher, MJ, Corcoran, P, Keeley, HS, Dennehy, J, O'Donnell, I. Improving procedures for recording suicide statistics. IMJ 1996; 89(1): 14–5.Google ScholarPubMed
22.Neeleman, J, Wessely, S. Changes in classification of suicide in England and Wales: Time trends and associations with coroners' professional backgrounds. Psychological Med 1997; 27: 467–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
23.Edwards, JG. Suicide and antidepressants. BMJ 1995; 310: 205–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
24.Keeley, HS, Fox, K, Coakley, A, Jones, G, Nagle, V, Connolly, M, Corrigan, C. & Kelleher, MJ. Youth experiences of suicide in Ireland. Ir J Psych Med — accepted for publication, pending revisions.Google Scholar