Hostname: page-component-5f56664f6-6m42z Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-08T02:08:49.235Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Psychological autopsy study of suicides by people aged under 35

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Louis Appleby ,
Jayne Cooper ,
Tim Amos  and
Brian Faragher
Louis Appleby*
Affiliation:
School of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Department of Psychiatry, Withington Hospital, Manchester
Jayne Cooper
Affiliation:
School of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Department of Psychiatry, Withington Hospital, Manchester
Tim Amos
Affiliation:
School of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Department of Psychiatry, Withington Hospital, Manchester
Brian Faragher
Affiliation:
Research Support Unit, University of Manchester Medical School, Manchester
*
Professor L. Appleby, School of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Department of Psychiatry, Withington Hospital, West Didsbury, Manchester M20 8LR
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

In the past two decades the suicide rate in young people has risen in the UK and other countries.

Aims

To identify the characteristics of people aged under 35 who commit suicide.

Method

Psychological autopsy study with case–control design. Cases were 84 suicides and probable suicides (open verdicts). Controls were 64 age- and gender-matched non-suicides obtained through the general practices of the matched cases. Main variables: social, including employment status, marital status and living circumstances; life events and interpersonal difficulties; clinical, including current psychiatric disorder, alcohol and drug misuse, previous self-harm and personality disorder.

Results

A large number of highly significant social, interpersonal and clinical differences between suicides and controls was found. Factor analysis identified two groups of variables within each of the social, interpersonal and clinical domains which were independently linked to suicide, corresponding to: acute, severe mental disorder and chronic disorder of behaviour; rootlessness and social withdrawal; chronic and recent interpersonal problems.

Conclusions

A broad prevention strategy is needed to reverse the recent rise in the suicide rate in young people.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 175 , Issue 2 , August 1999 , pp. 168 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Appleby, L., Amos, T., Doyle, U., et al (1996) General practitioners and young suicides. A preventative role for primary care. British Journal of Psychiatry, 168, 330–333.Google Scholar
Barraclough, B., Bunch, J., Nelson, B., et al (1974) A hundred cases of suicide: clinical aspects. British Journal of Psychiatry, 125, 355–373.Google Scholar
Beskow, J. & Runeson, B. (1990) Psychological autopsies: methods and ethics. Suicide and Life Threatening Behaviour, 20, 307–323.Google Scholar
Brent, D., Perper, J., Kolko, D., et al (1988) The psychological autopsy: methodological considerations for the study of adolescent suicide. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 27, 362–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casey, P. R. & Tyrer, P. J. (1986) Personality functioning and symptomatology. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 20, 363–374.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Charlton, J., Kelly, S., Dunnell, K., et al (1993) Suicide deaths in England and Wales: trends in factors associated with suicide deaths. Population Trends, 71, 34–42.Google Scholar
Fosrter, T., Gillespie, K. & McClelland, R. (1997) Mental disorders and suicide in Northern Ireland. British Journal of Psychiatry, 170, 447–452.Google Scholar
Hellstrom, T. (1977) Life-weariness, suicidal thoughts and suicidal attempts among women in Gothenburg, Sweden. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 56, 15–20.Google Scholar
Hawton, K. (1997) By their own young hand. British Medical Journal, 104, 1000.Google Scholar
Hawton, K. & Fagg, J. (1992) Deliberate self-poisoning and self-injury in adolescents. A study of characteristics and trends in Oxford, 1976–89. British Journal of Psychiatry, 161, 816–823.Google Scholar
Hawton, K. & Fagg, J. & Platt, S. (1993) Factors associated with suicide after parasuicide in young people. British Medical Journal, 306, 1641–1644.Google Scholar
Hawton, K., Appleby, L., Platt, S., et al (1998) The psychological autopsy approach to studying suicide: a review of methodological issues. Journal of Affective Disorders, 50, 269–276.Google ScholarPubMed
Lesage, A., Boyer, R., Grunberg, F., et al (1994) Suicide and mental disorders: a case–control study of young men. American Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 1063–1068.Google Scholar
Linehan, M. & Laffaw, J. (1982) Suicidal behaviours among clients of an out patient psychology clink versus the general population. Suicide and Life Threatening Behaviour, 12, 235–239.Google Scholar
McClure, G. M. G. (1994) Suicide in children and adolescents in England and Wales 1960–1990. British Journal of Psychiatry, 165, 510–514.Google Scholar
Meltzer, H., Gill, B., Petticrew, M., et al (1995) OPCS Surveys of Psychiatric Morbidity in Great Britain – Report I. The Prevalence of Psychiatric Morbidity among Adults Living in Private Households. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Myers, J. K., Weissman, M. M., Tischler, G. L., et al (1984) Six-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders in three communities. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 959–967.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (1998) Effective Health Care Bulletin, 4, no. 6. York: University of York.Google Scholar
Office for National Statistics (1997) 1995 Mortality Statistics: Cause. England and Wales Series DH2 no. 22. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (1993) Census: County Report for Greater Manchester. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Paykal, E. (1983) Methodological aspects of life events research. Journal of Psychological Research, 27, 341–352.Google Scholar
Paykal, E., Myers, J. K., Lindenthal, J. J., et al (1974) Suicidal feelings in the general population. A prevalence study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 124, 460–469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramsay, B. & Bagley, C. (1985) The prevalence of suicidal behaviours, attitudes and associated life experiences in an urban population. Suicide and Life Threatening Behaviour, 15, 151–167.Google Scholar
Rich, C., Young, D. & Fowler, R. (1986) San Diego Suicide Study: I. Young vs old subjects. Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 577–582.Google Scholar
Robins, L. N., Helzer, J. E., Weissman, M. M., et al (1984) Lifetime prevalence of specific psychiatric disorders in three sites. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 949–959.Google Scholar
Runeson, B. (1989) Mental disorders in youth suicide: DSM–III–R axes I and II. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 79, 490–497.Google Scholar
Schofield, P. (1996) Greater Manchester Research: Quarterly Unemployment Bulletin 2/96. Manchester: Association of Greater Manchester Authorities.Google Scholar
Shafil, M., Carrigan, S., Whittinghill, J., et al (1985) Psychological autopsy of completed suicide in children and adolescents. American Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 1061–1061.Google Scholar
Tyrer, P. & Alexander, J. (1979) Classification of personality disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 163–167.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1992) The Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD–10). Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.