Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:30:40.370Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Comparability of Suicide Rates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

M. W. Atkinson ,
Neil Kessel  and
J. B. Dalgaard
M. W. Atkinson
Affiliation:
University Hospital of South Manchester Department of Psychiatry, West Didsbury, Manchester, M20 8LR
Neil Kessel
Affiliation:
University Hospital of South Manchester Department of Psychiatry, West Didsbury, Manchester, M20 8LR
J. B. Dalgaard
Affiliation:
University of Aarhus, Department of Forensic Medicine, Finsensgade, Aarhus, Denmark
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Programmes of suicide prevention require for their planning accurate epidemiological surveys.

Doubt has been cast on the accuracy of many existing surveys because of the realization that suicide is under-reported and because of the lack of consistency in the procedure for suicide ascertainment.

Two studies are described in this paper which attempt to examine the problem.

The first is part of an international study supported by the World Health Organization. In it, Denmark and England are compared, and it is shown that there are striking differences in suicide ascertainment procedure between the two countries. Next, on a blind basis, coroners and their opposite numbers in Denmark examine a sample of each other's case records. It is found that the Danes consistently report more suicides than do the English coroners on the same case material; thus considerable doubt is cast on the supposed difference in suicide rates between the two countries.

In the second study, deaths by poisoning are examined for certain coroners' districts in England and Wales. It is shown that there is considerable variation from one district to another in the relative proportions of these deaths which achieve an accident, an open or a suicide verdict. This suggests that in England and Wales coroners may not be consistent in their suicide ascertainment criteria.

Hypotheses attempting to account for differences in suicide rate based on such epidemiological surveys should be viewed with great caution.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 127 , Issue 3 , September 1975 , pp. 247 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1975 

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. Barraclough, B. M. (1970) The effect that Coroners have on the suicide rate and the open verdict rate. In Psychiatric Epidemiology (eds. Hare, E. H. and Wing, J. K.), pp. 361–5. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2. Coroners Society of England and Wales (1966–67) Annual Report. Published privately for members.Google Scholar
3. Dalgaard, J. B. (1962) Critical remarks on international comparisons of suicide rates. Sociologiske Meddelelser. 7 Serie, pp. 53–60.Google Scholar
4. Dreyer, K. (1959) Comparative suicide statistics. Danish Medical Bulletin, Copenhagen, 6, 65–81.Google Scholar
5. Ettlinger, R. (1964) Can we rely on suicide statistics? Sartryck ur. Statistik Tidshrift, 2.51. Stockholm.Google Scholar
6. Jervis on Coroners (1957) 9th edition, p. 229. London: Maxwell & Sweet.Google Scholar
7. Registrar General (1972) Poisoning cases in 1970. Pharmaceutical Journal, 208, 530.Google Scholar
8. Registrar General Unpublished data on Coroners districts for 1969. Tabulation provided by the Department of Censuses and Surveys.Google Scholar
9. Sainsbury, P. & Barraclough, B. M. (1968) Differences between suicide rates. Nature, 220, No. 5173, 1252.Google Scholar
10. Stengel, E. (1964) Suicide and Attempted Suicide. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
11. Stengel, E. (1968) Suicide. Hospital Medicine, June, 1058–67.Google Scholar
12. Stengel, E. & Farberow, N. L. (1968) Certification of suicide around the world. Proceedings of IV International Conference on Suicide Prevention, pp. 8–15. Delmar Publishing Company.Google Scholar
13. World Health Organization (1968) Prevention of suicide. Public Health Paper No. 35.Google Scholar
14. World Health Organization (1968) Statistics Report, 21, No. 6.Google Scholar
15. Holding, T. A. & Barraclouoh, B. M. (1975) Psychiatric morbidity in a sample of a London coroner's open verdicts. British Journal of Psychiatry, 127, 97.Google Scholar
16. McCarthy, P. D., & Walsh, D. (1975) Suicide in Dublin. British Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 301.Google Scholar
17. World Health Organization (1975) Suicide and Attempted Suicide . Public Health Paper No. 58.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.