THURSDAY, April 16, 2009 (Health.com) — Spring typically brings blossoming flowers, longer days, and—somewhat surprisingly—more suicides. And because this spring follows one of the most turbulent financial times in recent memory, some experts are concerned that with millions of newly jobless people (unemployment being another suicide risk factor), suicide rates might spike.
“Previous recessions have been associated with increases in suicide, especially in younger men,” says Keith Hawton, DSc, who published a report on suicide risk factors in this week’s issue of The Lancet, along with co-author Kees van Heeringen, PhD, of University Hospital in Gent, Belgium. “We think that the effects of the recession will be greater than any seasonal effect,” says Hawton, the director of the Center for Suicide Research at the University of Oxford in the U.K.
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death worldwide, and 1 million people die each year due to suicide—one every 40 seconds.
While suicide seems unpredictable, researchers know quite a bit about the complex factors that can cause someone to take his or her own life. They know that suicides rates are higher in unemployed populations (in some cases, because people who are mentally ill have a harder time holding down a job), and tend to spike after natural disasters and deaths of celebrities. After Princess Diana’s death in 1997, for example, suicides rose 17%.
Suicides are also more common in regions farther from the equator than areas that are closer (and presumably more sunny). For example, in Japan suicide rates are known to vary by latitude.
Next page: Vitamin D may play a role
Comments (2)
I think we must suicide. We must control ourself and realize our mistake because no one is with us only we ourself are with us. Sit at park and think what was the matter that I am facing this. NOTE:- SUICIDE IS THE BIGGEST SIN. Live life enjoyable and don’t see others.
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