Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:40:33.822Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Seasonal Patterns of Suicide, Depression and Electroconvulsive Therapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

M. R. Eastwood  and
J. Peacocke
M. R. Eastwood
Affiliation:
Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, 250 College Street, Toronto M5T 1R8, Canada
J. Peacocke
Affiliation:
Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, 250 College Street, Toronto M5T 1R8, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This study examined the hypothesis that there are seasonal variations for suicide, hospital admissions for depressive illnesses and electroconvulsive therapy and that these are inter-related. It was found that the seasonal variations did coincide, with peaks occurring in the Ontario spring and autumn. The importance of depression as a cause of suicide and the effect of electroconvulsive therapy upon the suicide rate are discussed.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 129 , Issue 5 , November 1976 , pp. 472 - 475
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1976 

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) A medical approach to suicide prevention. Journal of Social Science and Medicine, 6, 661—7.Google ScholarPubMed
Barraclough, B. M. (1972) Suicide prevention, recurrent affective disorder and lithium. British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 391—2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barraclough, B. M., Bunch, J., Nelson, B. & Sainsbury, P. (1974) A hundred cases of suicide: clinical aspects. British Journal of Psychiatry, 125, 355—73.Google Scholar
Carney, M. W. P., Sheffield, B. F. & Sebastian, J. (1973) Serum magnesium, diagnosis, ECT and season. British Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 427—9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cerbus, G. (1970) Seasonal variation in some mental health statistics: suicides, homicides, psychiatric admissions and institutional placement of the retarded. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 26, 60—3.3.0.CO;2-J>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cerbus, G. & Dallara, R. F. (1975) Seasonal differences of depression in mental hospital admissions as measured by the MMPI. Psychological Reports, 36, 737—8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davies, T. W. & de Monchaux, C. (1973) Mood changes in relation to personality and the excretion of 3-methoxy-4 hydroxy-mandelic acid. Psychosomatic Medicine, 35, 205—14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
d'Elia, G. & Raotma, H. (1975) Is unilateral ECT less effective than bilateral ECT? British Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 83—9.Google Scholar
Dublin, L. I. (1963) Suicide: A Sociological and Statistical Study. New York: Ronald Press Co.Google Scholar
Durkheim, E. (1897) Le Suicide. Paris. Translated 1952 as Suicide: A Study in Sociology, by Spaulding, J. A. and Simpson, C., London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Eastwood, M. R. & Peacocke, J. (1975) Diagnosis and evaluation of ECT. Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal. In Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faust, V. & Sarreither, P. (1975) Jahreszeit und psychische Krankheit. Medizinische Klinik (München), 70, 467—73 (nr. 11).Google Scholar
Guze, S. & Robbins, E. (1970) Suicide and primary affective disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry, 117, 437—8.Google Scholar
Kellner, R. (1966) The seasonal prevalence of neurosis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 112, 69—70.Google Scholar
Kraines, S. (1957) Mental Depressions and their Treatment. New York: MacMillan Co.Google Scholar
Kreitman, N. (1961) The reliability of psychiatric diagnoses. Journal of Mental Science, 107, 876—86.Google Scholar
Lester, D. (1971) Seasonal variation in suicidal deaths. British Journal of Psychiatry, 118, 627—8.Google Scholar
Ottosson, J. O. (1968) Psychological and physiological theories of ECT. International Journal of Psychiatry, 5, 170—4.Google Scholar
Robins, E., Murphy, G. & Wilkinson, R. (1959) Some clinical considerations in the prevention of suicide based on a study of 134 successful suicides. American Journal of Public Health, 49, 888—9.Google Scholar
Sainsbury, P. (1972) The social relations of suicide. The value of a combined epidemiology and case study approach. Journal of Social Science and Medicine, 6, 189—98.Google Scholar
Winokur, G. & Tsuang, M. (1975) The Iowa 500: suicide in mania, depression and schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 650—1.Google ScholarPubMed
World Health Organization (1968) Prevention of Suicide. Public Health Paper No. 35. Geneva.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.