Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:06:44.271Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Psychiatric Approach to the Diagnosis of Suicide and its Effect upon the Edinburgh Statistics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Irene M. K. Ovenstone
Irene M. K. Ovenstone*
Affiliation:
Mapperley Hospital, Nottingham; formerly Scientific Staff, M.R.C. Unit for Epidemiological Studies in Psychiatry, University Department of Psychiatry, Edinburgh EH10 5HF
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Researchers agree that suicides are under-reported, although estimates of the extent vary. Dublin (1963) suggested that recorded figures were understated by one fourth to one third. Seager and Flood (1965) estimated that possible suicides among deaths reported as accidents, misadventure or open verdicts might be as many as 50 per cent of those actually returned as suicide. Important sources of under-reporting lie in the methods of ascertaining and recording suicide as well as in religious and social attitudes, which tend, in certain countries, to look upon suicide as a stigma and to avoid a verdict of suicide where possible.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 123 , Issue 572 , July 1973 , pp. 15 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1973 

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

Barraclough, B. M. (1972). ‘Are the Scottish and English suicide rates really different?’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 120, 267–73.Google Scholar
Bowker, A. H. (1948). J. Amer. Statist. Assoc., 43, No. 241–244, 572–4.Google Scholar
Douglas, J. D. (1967). The Social Meanings of Suicide. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Dublin, L. I. (1963). Suicide—a Sociological and Statistical Study. New York: Ronald Press.Google Scholar
Kennedy, P. (1971). Personal communication.Google Scholar
Seager, G. P., and Flood, R. A. (1965). ‘Suicide in Bristol.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 111, 919–32.Google Scholar
Wilkins, J. (1970). ‘A follow-up study of those who called a Suicide Prevention Center.’ Amer. J. Psychiat., 127, 2, 155–61.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.