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Suicidal risk
factors similar across the globe
(April 2008
Issue)
By Catherine Robertson Souter
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death around the world.
One recent study put the overall rate of suicide at nearly 3% of
the total global population. The study, conducted with data collected
by the World Health Organization (WHO) from 2000 to 2004 in more
than 17 countries, is one of the first to look at a wide sample
of nations from each continent and to include low, middle and high-income
countries.
Perhaps the most surprising find in the study was not the total
number of suicides but the fact that the risk factors leading to
suicide are quite similar everywhere. While the study did find that
the overall suicide rate differs from one country to the next, populations
around the world have nearly identical triggers for suicidal ideation,
planning and attempted suicide in contrast to what previous studies
were thought to show.
"The consistency of the risk factors was a surprising find," says
Matthew Nock, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology in the Faculty
of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. "For instance, prior
studies in other countries, China and Japan, had suggested that
mental disorders do not play as big a role as they do in Western
countries."
Published in the February issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry,
the study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health
(NIMH) and several private foundations and conducted by a team led
by Nock. The data was collected by WHO interviewers conducting face-to-face
surveys with more than 84,000 people in 17 countries. Suicidal ideation,
plans and attempts were assessed along with socio-demographic setting,
prior mental health diagnoses and suicidal behaviors.
According to the study, prevalence rates for all countries combined
are 9.2 percent for suicidal ideation, 3.1 percent for those making
plans for suicide and 2.7 percent for suicidal attempts. Across
borders, nearly 60 percent of those who go from suicidal thoughts
to plans to attempts do so within one year after the first thoughts
occur.
Individual countries, such as China, had lower reported rates of
suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts (3.1, .9 and 1.0 percent respectively).
Although some believe that cultural mores may have prevented some
of these respondents from admitting to suicidal thoughts, the lower
overall rates did not affect the rates of the risk factors.
"Despite a national variability in prevalence," says Nock, "the
risk factors are the same. When it is there, it looks the same."
The risk factors for suicide include being female, younger, less
educated, not married, and having a mental disorder. The only noticeable
variable was with diagnostic risk factors: mood disorders were
more likely to lead to suicidal tendencies in high income countries
while impulse control disorders were more of a factor in low- and
middle-income places.
This study was the first of a three-year analysis of the data,
according to Nock. The group plans to look at the data from the
28 countries whose information is now available to take a deeper
look at other mental health disorders and their effects on the population
as well as the positive role of social support. The WHO now has
data from more than 200,000 subjects for the Harvard initiative
to study. With a study of this size, Nock explains, researchers
will be able to tease out a number of analyses from the data.
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