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Seasonality of suicide attempts: Association with gender

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

R. Mergl
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
I. Havers
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
D. Althaus
Affiliation:
Praxis for Psychotherapy, Dachau, Germany
Z. Rihmer
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical and Theoretical Mental Health, Semmelweis University, Faculty of Medicine, Budapest, Hungary
A. Schmidtke
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Julius-Maximilians-University Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg, Germany
H. Lehfeld
Affiliation:
Hospital for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Nuremberg, Germany
G. Niklewski
Affiliation:
Hospital for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Nuremberg, Germany
U. Hegerl
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

Abstract

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Introduction

Some studies suggest seasonality of suicide attempts in females, but not males. Only few studies investigated whether gender differences in seasonality of suicide attempts reflect gender differences in the choice of method, with inconsistent results.

Objectives/aims

To analyze the association of gender with seasonality in suicide attempts by persons living in two Northern Bavarian regions (city of Nuremberg and region of Wuerzburg) between 2000 and 2004.

Methods

The sample consisted of 2269 suicide attempters (882 males and 1387 females). The overall seasonality was assessed using the chi2 test for multinomials. Moreover, the ratio of observed to expected number of suicide attempts (OER) with 95% confidence intervals within each season was calculated.

Results

Overall distribution of suicide attempts differed significantly between seasons for women (chi2 = 9.19; df = 3; p = 0.03), but not for men. Female suicide attempts showed a trough in the spring (OER = 0.9; 95% C.I. = 0.8 – 1.0) which was restricted to female low-risk suicide attempts (OER = 0.87; 95% C.I. = 0.77 – 0.98). No seasonality was found for men. Seasonality of high-risk methods was more pronounced than that of low-risk methods; however, no significant gender differences were found.

The overall distribution of the sub-types of suicidal acts (parasuicidal gestures, suicidal pauses, suicide attempts in the strict sense) showed seasonality neither for males nor for females.

Conclusions

Whereas seasonality was absent in male suicide attempters, the frequency of low-risk suicide attempts in females was 13.1% lower than expected in the spring.

Type
P03-460
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2011
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