Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T02:39:42.385Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

‘Suicidal Behaviour’ in New South Wales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

J. Kraus*
Affiliation:
Department of Youth and Community Services, Sydney, N.S.W. 2000, Australia

Extract

For about fifteen years now a tradition has been evolving in the psychiatric literature towards a taxonomic separation of suicides and attempted suicides, on the assumption that they involve distinct psychogenic factors (Stengel and Cook, 1958; Farberow and Schneidman, 1961). However, even the originator of the distinction agreed that a better understanding of attempted suicide could be gained if it is regarded as conveying a degree of uncertainty that the attempt will succeed or fail (Stengel, 1958), and that the separation of ‘… suicide and attempted suicide … is artificial (as) … it is possible to view suicidal acts as a whole and irrespective of outcome’ (Stengel, 1969, p. 121). The latter view has been reflected in the recent introduction and usage of the term ‘suicidal behaviour’ which includes both suicides and attempted suicides (Hetzel, 1971).

Type
Research Article
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

Bagley, C. (1968) The evaluation of a suicide prevention scheme by an ecological method. Soc. Sci. Med., 2, 1.Google Scholar
Birtchnell, J. & Alarcon, J. (1971) Depression and attempted suicide. Brit. J. Psychiat., 118, 289.Google Scholar
Burvill, P. W. (1970a) Methods of suicide in Western Australia. Med. J. Aust., ii, 411.Google Scholar
Burvill, P. W. (1970b) Age-sex variations in suicide in Western Australia. Med. J. Aust., ii, 1113.Google Scholar
Burvill, P. W. McCall, M. G., Reid, T. A. & Stenhouse, N. S. (1973) Methods of suicide of English and Welsh immigrants in Australia. Brit. J. Psychiat., 123, 285.Google Scholar
Department of Health (1967—72) In-patients Statistics. Psychiatric Centres. Sydney: Statistical Branch, Division of Establishments.Google Scholar
Diespecker, D. D. (1973) Some characteristics of attempted suicide. Med. J. Aust., ii, 121.Google Scholar
Durkheim, E. (1897) Suicide (transl. 1952). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Farberow, N. & Schneidman, E. (1961) The Cry for Help. London: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Freeman, J. W., Ryan, C. A. & Beattie, R. R. (1970) Epidemiology of drug overdosage in Southern Tasmania. Med. J. Aust., ii, 1168.Google Scholar
Hetzel, B. S. (1971) The epidemiology of suicidal behaviour in Australia. Aust. N.Z.J. Psychiat., 5, 156.Google Scholar
Kennedy, P., Kreitman, N. & Ovenstone, M. K. (1974) The prevalence of suicide and parasuicide (‘attempted suicide’) in Edinburgh. Brit. J. Psychiat., 124, 36.Google Scholar
Krupinski, J., Stoller, A. & Polke, P. (1966) Attempted suicides admitted to the Mental Health Department, Victoria, Australia. Int. J. Psychiat., 13, 5.Google Scholar
Madge, J. (1970) The Origins of Scientific Sociology. London: Social Science Paperback.Google Scholar
Modan, B., Nissenkorn, I. & Lewkowski, S. R. (1970) Suicide in a heterogeneous society. Brit. J. Psychiat., 116, 65.Google Scholar
Nielsen, J. & Videbech, T. (1973) Suicide frequency before and after introduction of community psychiatry in a Danish island. Brit. J. Psychiat., 123, 35.Google Scholar
Oliver, R. G. & Hetzel, B. S. (1972) Rise and fall of suicide rates in Australia: relation to sedative availability. Med. J. Aust., ii, 919.Google Scholar
Parnell, R. & Skottowe, I. (1957) Towards preventing suicide. Lancet, i, 206.Google Scholar
Sainsbury, P., Walk, D. & Grad, J. (1966) Evaluating the Graylingwell Hospital community psychiatric service in Chichester. Suicide and community care. The Milbank Memorial Fund Qtly, 44, 1. Part 2.Google Scholar
Stengel, E. (1958) Attempted Suicide: Its Social Significance and Effects. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Stengel, E. (1969) Suicide and Attempted Suicide. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Stengel, E. & Cook, N. (1958) Attempted Suicide. London: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
White, H. C. (1974) Self-poisoning in adolescents. Brit. J. Psychiat., 124, 24.Google Scholar
Walk, D. (1967) Suicide and community care. Brit. J. Psychiat., 113, 1381.Google Scholar
Whitlock, F. A. (1971) Migration and suicide. Med. J. Aust., ii, 840.Google Scholar
W.H.O. (1968a) The prevention of suicide. Public Health Paper No. 35. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
W.H.O. (1968b) World Health Statistics Report 21, No. 6. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.