Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T16:16:45.120Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Media Influence on Parasuicide

A Study of the Effects of a Television Drama Portrayal of Paracetamol Self-Poisoning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Sue Simkin ,
Keith Hawton ,
Linda Whitehead ,
Joan Fagg  and
Matthew Eagle
Sue Simkin
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital
Keith Hawton*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital
Linda Whitehead
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Oxford Radcliffe Hospital, (John Radcliffe), Oxford OX3 9DU
Joan Fagg
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital
Matthew Eagle
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, 1 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG
*
Dr K. Hawton, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Paracetamol self-poisoning, which carries a significant risk of fatal liver damage, is increasing in the UK, especially among adolescents. There is concern that media portrayal of suicidal behaviour may influence its occurrence. We have investigated the effects of two broadcasts of a television drama showing a teenage girl's overdose of paracetamol.

Method

Data from the Oxford Monitoring System for Attempted Suicide were used to examine changes in the number of overdoses and the use of paracetamol in the three week period before and after both broadcasts. An analysis of log-linear models was carried out, using additional data from two previous years, in order to control for the effects of gender, age group, time period, season, year and drug. A questionnaire was used to ascertain whether the programme had influenced patients' decisions to take an overdose or their choice of drug.

Results

An increase in paracetamol overdoses occurred following the first broadcast, but when data from the two previous years were examined and the log-linear analysis was used there was no evidence of significant effects attributable to the broadcasts. The questionnaire study revealed that very few people had seen either episode, and only two claimed that it had influenced them (one in terms of getting help).

Conclusions

It is important to use sound methodology to avoid interpreting chance fluctuations as a media effect. The potential positive benefits of such programmes should also be investigated.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 167 , Issue 6 , December 1995 , pp. 754 - 759
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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

Broadcasting Standards Council (1994) A Code of Practice. London: Broadcasting Standards Council.Google Scholar
Collins, S. (1993) Health prevention messages may have paradoxical effect. British Medical Journal, 306, 926.Google Scholar
Everitt, B. S. (1992) The Analysis of Contingency Tables (2nd edition). London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Gunnell, D. (1994) Reporting suicide. The effect of media coverage on patterns of self-harm. British Medical Journal, 308, 1446–1447.Google Scholar
Hawton, K. & Fagg, J. (1992a) Trends in deliberate self poisoning and self injury in Oxford 1976–90. British Medical Journal, 304, 1409–1411.Google Scholar
Hawton, K. & Fagg, J. (1992b) Deliberate self-poisoning and self-injury in adolescents: a study of characteristics and trends in Oxford, 1976–8. British Journal of Psychiatry, 161, 816–823.Google Scholar
Phillips, D. P. (1974) The influence of suggestion on suicide: substantive and theoretical implications of the Werther effect. American Sociological Review, 39, 340–354.Google Scholar
Phillips, D. P. (1989) Recent advances in suicidology. The study of imitative suicide. In Suicide and its Prevention: the Role of Attitude and Imitation (eds Diekstra, R. F. W., Maris, R. W., Platt, S. D., et al), pp. 299–312. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
Platt, S. (1987) The aftermath of Angie's overdose. Is soap (opera) damaging to your health? British Medical Journal, 294, 954–957.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Platt, S. (1989) The consequences of a televised soap opera drug overdose: is there a mass media imitation effect? In Suicide and its Prevention: the Role of Attitude and Imitation (eds Diekstra, R. F. W., Maris, R. W., Platt, S. D., et al), pp. 341–359. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
Platt, S. (1994) The media response. In The Prevention of Suicide (eds Jenkins, R., Griffiths, S., Wylie, I., et al). pp. 125–134. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Schmidtke, A. & Häfner, H. (1988) The Werther effect after television films: new evidence for an old hypothesis. Psychological Medicine, 18, 665–676.Google Scholar
Schmidtke, A. & Häfner, H. 1989) Public attitudes towards and effects of the mass media on suicidal and deliberate self-harm behavior. In Suicide and its Prevention: the Role of Attitude and Imitation (eds Diekstra, R. F. W., Maris, R. W., Platt, S. D., et al), pp. 313–330. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
Sellar, C., Goldacre, M. J. & Hawton, K. (1990) Reliability of routine hospital data on poisoning as measures of deliberate self poisoning in adolescents. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, vol. 4. 44, 313–315.Google Scholar
Spooner, J. B. & Harvey, J. G. (1993) Paracetamol overdosage –facts not misconceptions. Pharmaceutical Journal, 250, 706–707.Google Scholar
Stinson, J. C., Chan, R., O'Connell, T., et al (1993) Medical messages on television. British Medical Journal, 306, 1415–1416.Google Scholar
Waldron, G., Walton, J. & Helowicz, R. (1993) Copycat overdoses coincidental. British Medical Journal, 306, 1416.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.