Posted on 02/07/2008 8:56:12 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Kiwis have most suicidal thoughts
Feb 7, 2008 10:44 AM
A global study shows suicidal thoughts are most common among New Zealanders.
The largest ever study of such behaviours found that 9.2% of the world's population has contemplated suicide, but fewer than 3% actually make an attempt.
And while the percentage of people who have considered suicide varies considerably from country to country, the overall risk factors - being female, having less education, being younger, being unmarried and having mental disorders - were the same across all of the 17 nations included in the analysis.
"Suicidal thoughts are not so infrequent if one in ten people, approximately, are having them," Dr Matthew K Nock of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts told Reuters Health. Nock is part of the World Health Organization's World Mental Health Survey Initiative, which is gathering mental health data via face-to-face interviews with people in 28 countries.
The current study, published in British Journal of Psychiatry, looked at suicidal behaviours including thoughts of suicide (known medically as suicidal ideation), having a suicide plan, and actually attempting suicide in 84,850 adults.
Suicidal thoughts were most common among New Zealanders, with 15.9 percent having considered suicide, closely followed by the US, with 15.3%. Italians were the least likely to consider suicide (3%), plan to kill themselves (0.7%), or attempt suicide (0.5%). Suicidal behaviours were also relatively rare in China and Nigeria.
The researchers found no difference in the prevalence of suicidal behaviours between rich nations as a group and middle- and low-income nations. And in all countries studied, mental health problems including mood disorders, impulse control disorders, anxiety disorders, and substance use disorders roughly tripled the likelihood of suicidal behaviours.
"We often think of depressive disorders as being strong risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviours," Nock noted. "What we found was that other disorders were just as strong."
He and his colleagues also found that while mood disorders were the most strongly tied to suicidal behaviours in high-income countries, impulse control disorders were more influential in low- and middle-income countries.
Another key finding, Nock said, was that people were much more likely to attempt suicide in the year after they first began having thoughts of doing so. And across all countries, adolescence was the highest-risk time for suicide attempts.
Nock and his colleagues are now investigating additional risk factors for suicide, as well as potential protective factors such as spirituality or social support, in the hopes of developing effective strategies for preventing suicidal behaviour.
While some interventions have been found to be effective in research settings, he noted in an interview, these treatments have been slow to make their way into the real world of patient care. "There's a big gap between what we know and what we do," he said.
NZ rates stabilise
Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton said last November that New Zealand's suicide rates have remained stable over recent years, with a rate of 13.2 people in every 100,000 dying by suicide between 2003-2005 compared to 13.1 deaths in 2002-2004.
"While it is encouraging to see suicide rates have dropped since the peak in the late 1990s there is no room for complacency," Anderton said.
The rate is higher for Maori (17.9 per 100,000) than non-Maori (12.0 per 100,000) and more females are admitted to hospital for self-harm than males.
Anderton said there were many causes of suicide and a range of agencies needed to be involved in its prevention.
The ones who wrote this have never been to Seattle.
I guess alcoholism isn’t working for them anymore...
The US was #2. I wonder what we have in common with New Zealand and I wonder how long the US has ranked this high? I also notice this is a UN funded study, which makes me suspicious the test was designed to cast the US in a bad light.
Dear God. Is McCain running there as a Republican, too?
3% have attempted suicide?
You’d be suicidal if you had to live in boiling mud
Whine yourself to death (please) when our honorable and dedicated maimed Military Vets arrive home with so much less, literally. Cry me a friggin river that you don't get in the top American Idol cut.
I hate you people. Yes, again, I hate you people. YOUR brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and all other family memebers are DYING and being MAIMED oversees. But your concern is who's going to get the Gold paper to go to Hollywierd.
You are all the most extreme example of pathetic. I would love just ONE moment with you wannabes to tell you how bad you truly are. Someone needs to slap you upside the head and eject you into the nether regions of lost and hopeless wannabes. Get a fucking job.
Consider decaf.
It's a freak show, and apprently you don't know you're the freak! What? Is your self-esteem so low that you need a (5) minute audition on national television for your hopeful 15 minutes of fame to prove how pitiful and non-talentented you are? Other than the very few who can actually sing, the rest of you are showing the entire World how idiotic you are. WE ARE LAUGHING AT YOU!!! WE ARE LITTERALY ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING OUR ASS OFF at your bizarre attempts.
Get some dignity...you poor non-talented wannabes. Join a band or something...
I take it you don't agree. Fair enough.
As the Aussies are Socialists, can't say that would apply so much. And if Hillary becomes your next President and therefore the US becomes a Socialist country again, that would explain in advance your close second running .... apparently.
My my, you’re on a roll tonite, aren’t you, LOL! You must be suffering a hangover from the Pub primary results so far. Cheer up. Better these American Idol wannabee’s are doing what they are doing rather than being in our armed forces, polluting them with their fluff brains. Who’d want them in the services? A horrifying thought.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.