Suicide statistics: Young men under the age of 30, who were unemployed and suffered from undiagnosed depression were the most likely group to die by suicide, an eight-year study of suicides in Co Kildare has shown.
The research, carried out by Dr Cliona McGovern and Prof Denis Cusack of the Division of Legal Medicine, University College Dublin, found 84 per cent of suicides in the county between 1995 and 2002 were male. Of 109 suicides during this period, 32 occurred in men aged between 20 and 30.
The youngest suicide was in a boy aged 11. Some 23 deaths occurred in people aged 60 and over. The annual suicide rate for the period under study was 10 per 100,000 population. This compares with an official Central Statistics Office (CSO) national suicide rate of 11.5 per 100,000 people in 2002.
A study of suicides in Kildare, 1995-2002, published in the Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine points to a discrepancy between the suicide figures recorded by coroners and those provided by the CSO. Form 104 is used by the CSO to supplement a coroner's certificate. It is completed by a Garda Inspector who is asked: "Please state, in your opinion, whether the death was accidental; suicidal; homicidal; undetermined."
According to McGovern and Cusack, the discrepancy arises because the phrasing "in your opinion" creates difficulties. They also note some coroners may be reluctant to bring in a verdict of suicide. "The reluctance of some coroners to return a verdict of suicide can have social, historical or religious reasons.
"The issue of some coroners either not returning a verdict of suicide where necessary or the death not being recorded as suicide on Form 104 is a matter of grave concern," Prof Cusack, who is coroner for Co Kildare, told The Irish Times yesterday.
When the method of suicide was examined, hanging, at 49 per cent of cases, was the most common. Shooting, drowning and carbon monoxide poisoning were the next most common methods. Although suicide by starvation is extremely rare, 4 per cent of suicides in the study were by this method. A single event, involving suicide by starvation among four members of the same family, accounted for the high number.
While the unemployed were the single most likely occupational group to die by suicide, two doctors featured in the study. Both died, it is understood, by sophisticated methods of self-medication (poisoning). Some 52 per cent of suicides occurred on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The months of May, June and July accounted for 32 per cent of suicides. "This is contrary to what we expected to find, that of suicide occurring more frequently in the darker winter months," the authors state.
In an analysis, they examined the suicide notes left by 35 per cent of victims. They frequently referred to feelings of depression or sadness. Most indicated the victim's decision was not a spur of the moment one.
"What this indicates is that there is a proportion of people who suffer from chronic depression without receiving any help or treatment for it," they add. "What was also worrying is the distancing and isolation that a lot of young men felt. In some cases they spoke of being a burden to their families as they could not get a job or they were 'useless'."