Psychiatry Research
Volume 137, Issue 1 , Pages 21-27, 15 November 2005

Impact of case fatality on the seasonality of suicidal behaviour

  • Daniel Joseph Rock

      Affiliations

    • Centre for Clinical Research in Neuropsychiatry, Graylands Hospital, Locked Bag No. 1, Claremont, 6910, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
    • School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Centre for Clinical Research in Neuropsychiatry, Locked Bag No. 1, Claremont, 6910, Western Australia, Australia. Tel.: +61 8 9347 6405; fax: +61 8 9384 5128.
    • ,
  • David Mace Greenberg

      Affiliations

    • School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
    • ,
  • Joachim Franz Hallmayer

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA

Received 19 January 2004; received in revised form 17 January 2005; accepted 3 August 2005.

Abstract 

A number of differences exist between the seasonality of suicide and suicidal behaviour. Case fatality is one index of the relationship between these phenomena. The purpose of this study was to use contemporaneous data to examine the impact of case fatality on the seasonality of suicidal behaviour. All deliberate self-harm (ICD9 E950–58) hospitalisations (DSH) and deaths (suicide) for 1984–93 were extracted from the Western Australia case register (N=22 883). Case fatality was calculated by method of suicide. Data were arranged in time series by standardised month according to case fatality; sex and age and analysed using spectral analysis. We found that DSH involving low case fatal methods is seasonal with a spring peak (95% confidence interval). The explained variance of the seasonal rhythm increases with age. Suicide involving high case fatal methods is not seasonal. The increase in DSH seasonality with age may be related to a parallel increase in case fatality.

Keywords: Suicide, Deliberate self-harm, Season, Epidemiology

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PII: S0165-1781(05)00233-7

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2005.08.002

Psychiatry Research
Volume 137, Issue 1 , Pages 21-27, 15 November 2005

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