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Changes in rates, methods and characteristics of suicide attempters over a 15-year period: comparison between Stockholm, Sweden, and Würzburg, Germany

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Abstract

Purpose

To investigate age and sex-specific changes in rates, methods used and characteristics of suicide attempters receiving medical care, over a 15-year period in two European WHO catchment areas (Stockholm, Sweden; and Würzburg, Germany).

Methods

The data for this study were obtained from the WHO/EURO Multicentre Study on Suicidal Behaviour for the period 1989–2003. Sex-specific, person-based suicide attempt rates were calculated for each year separately for the age groups 15–24 and 25 or above. The Chi-square test for trend was applied to estimate changes in proportions of socio-demographic and socio-economic variables.

Results

Significantly, increasing trends in suicide attempt rates occurred in young females, and in males and females aged 25 or above in Würzburg. On the contrary, men 25 years and above showed a significant decrease in suicide attempt rates in Stockholm. Young females in Würzburg tended to use less violent methods for their attempts whereas in Stockholm young females were increasingly inclined to attempt suicide using violent methods. In Stockholm, young female suicide attempters tended to be more often economically inactive, particularly due to an increasing proportion of students. Young females in Würzburg were often less well educated, as were their young male counterparts. This contrasted with trends in the education of men and women of 25 or above in Stockholm.

Conclusions

The results of this study suggest temporal changes in trends, methods used and in the social profile of suicide attempters.

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Conflicts of interest

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Clinical Sciences Building, City Hospital, Nottingham, NG5 1PB, UK

    Ilze Bogdanovica

  2. National Prevention of Suicide and Mental Ill-Health at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm County Council’s Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Granits väg 4, Solna, SE-17177, Stockholm, Sweden

    Ilze Bogdanovica & Guo-Xin Jiang

  3. Department of Clinical Psychology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Würzburg, Füchsleinstrasse 15, 97080, Würzburg, Germany

    Cordula Löhr & Armin Schmidtke

  4. Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Insurance Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Berzelius väg 3, SE-17177, Stockholm, Sweden

    Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz

Authors
  1. Ilze Bogdanovica
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  2. Guo-Xin Jiang
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  3. Cordula Löhr
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  4. Armin Schmidtke
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  5. Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz
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Correspondence to Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz.

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Bogdanovica, I., Jiang, GX., Löhr, C. et al. Changes in rates, methods and characteristics of suicide attempters over a 15-year period: comparison between Stockholm, Sweden, and Würzburg, Germany. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 46, 1103–1114 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-010-0282-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-010-0282-3

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