-According to reports from the American Psychological Association, each year more than 8 million Americans seriously consider suicide.
-Globally, suicide attempts and completed suicides revolve around 3-5% of the population over 16 years of age. Every day there are between 8,000 to 10,000 suicide attempts in the world, of which approximately 1,000 people carry out the act. Thus, according to the WHO, suicide would be the tenth cause of death worldwide.
– Between 1-2% of those who attempt suicide achieve their goal before the first year, between 15-30% of people repeat the behavior the coming year while around 10-20% become great repeaters of suicidal behavior until they end up achieving their goal.
– People between 18 and 25 think more about suicide than those of older ages, which is why suicide attempt is more common in young people and adults, while suicide shows higher mortality rates among the elderly.
-Women show higher numbers of suicide attempts; however, attempts decrease with age, while suicide attempts increase in men as they age.
– In Nordic countries there is a higher suicide rate during winter because the sunlight lasts for a short time, which leads to seasonal depression that becomes a trigger for suicidal behavior.
– The Presuicidal Syndrome, coined by Ringel in 1947, characterizes the typical behaviors of people before committing suicide, these are: suicidal fantasies, suicide planning, decreased intellect and affect, inability to find solutions to more diverse problems and the decrease of the habitual aggressiveness towards the others to overturn it on oneself.
– The “Werther Effect”, delimited in 1974 by Phillips, describes the effect of suggestion on suicidal behavior; It is a how the media influence the increase in suicide attempt. Although the effect has only recently been scientified, the effect is several years old. So much so that when Goethe wrote his novel: “The Sorrows of Young Werther” (where the hopelessness for love of a talented young man who ends up committing suicide with a shot to his head, for those who have not read it) it was prohibited its sale in various parts of Europe because it triggered a wave of suicides among teenagers, who curiously chose the same method.
– In Japan this same effect is known by the name of “Yuriko Effect”. It owes its name to a wave of suicide unleashed after the sensational news about the suicide of Yuriko, a Japanese rock star.
Sources:
Pérez, S. A. (2005) ¿Cómo evitar el suicidio en adolescentes? Futuros, 9 (3).
Bradvik, L. & Berglund, M. (2009) Repetition and severity of suicide attempts across the life cycle: a comparison by age group between suicide victims and controls with severe depression. BMC Psychiatry, 9(62).
