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Completed suicide: a taxonomic analysis of clinical and social data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Christopher Bagley ,
Solomon Jacobson  and
Ann Rehin
Christopher Bagley*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford and St Francis Hospital, Haywards Heath, Sussex
Solomon Jacobson
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford and St Francis Hospital, Haywards Heath, Sussex
Ann Rehin
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford and St Francis Hospital, Haywards Heath, Sussex
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Christopher Bagley, Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford.
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Synopsis

A post mortem enquiry has been made into the social family and clinical circumstances of 50 individuals who, according to a coroner's verdict, killed themselves in Brighton. A dimensional analysis of the 123 variables thus collected suggested the possibility of three distinct types of suicide: ‘depressive suicide’, ‘sociopathic suicide’ and ‘physical illness suicide’. The reliability of this typology has been checked by the analysis of 55 selected variables for a total of 193 cases considered by the same coroner. A cluster analysis has confirmed that the data contain at least three independent types of suicide. Some implications for the prevention of suicide are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , August 1976 , pp. 429 - 438
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

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