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BackgroundThe lethality of the suicide method employed is a strong risk factor for the completion of suicide. We examined whether annual changes in the pattern of suicide methods is related to annual changes in suicide rates in South Korea, the United States (US), and Finland.MethodsWe analyzed annual data from 2000–2011 for South Korea and Finland, and 2000–2010 for the US in order to examine trends in the rates and methods of suicide. Data on suicide methods were obtained from the World Health Organization (WHO) mortality database.ResultsAlong with an annual rapid increase in suicide rates, the incidence of hanging increased steadily while suicide by self-poisoning steadily decreased in South Korea. In the US, along with an annual increase in suicide rates, the proportion of suicides committed by hanging increased while those committed with the use of firearms steadily decreased. In Finland, annual changes in the suicide rate and suicide method were not statistically significant during the study period.ConclusionsOur present findings suggest that the increased use of specific lethal methods for suicide, namely hanging, is reflected in the increased suicide rates in the Korean and the US populations. The most effective approach for reducing overall suicide rates may be the implementation of population-based initiatives that reduce both the accessibility (e.g., access to firearms) and the social acceptability (e.g., effective and responsible regulations for reporting suicide) of lethal methods of suicide.

BackgroundEast Asian countries have high suicide rates. However, little is known about clinical and sociodemographic factors associated with suicidality in Asian populations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the factors associated with suicidality in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) from six Asian countries.MethodsThe study cohort consisted of 547 outpatients with MDD. Patients presented to study sites in China (n = 114), South Korea (n = 101), Malaysia (n = 90), Singapore (n = 40), Thailand (n = 103), and Taiwan (n = 99). All patients completed the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), the Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), the Global Severity Index(SCL-90R), the Fatigue Severity Scale, the 36-item short-form health survey, the Sheehan Disability Scale, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). Patients were classified as showing high suicidality if they scored ≥6 on the MINI suicidality module. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to examine sociodemographic and clinical factors related to high suicidality.ResultsOne hundred and twenty-five patients were classed as high suicidality. Unemployed status (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 2.43, p < 0.01), MADRS score (adjusted OR 1.08), p < 0.001, and GSI (SCL-90R) score (adjusted OR 1.06, p < 0.01) were positively related to high suicidality. Hindu (adjusted OR 0.09, p < 0.05) or Muslim (adjusted OR 0.21, p < 0.001) religion and MSPSS score (adjusted OR 0.82, p < 0.05) were protective against high suicidality.ConclusionsA variety of sociodemographic and clinical factors were associated with high suicidality in Asian patients with MDD. These factors may facilitate the identification of MDD patients at risk of suicide.

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This paper presents experimental data on how native English-speaking adult learners perceive Korean voiceless alveolar fricatives in a task soliciting sensitivity to prosodic context. College students in a second semester Korean class were asked to identify tokens of the two contrasting Korean fricatives, lax /s/ and tense /ss/, using letters of the Korean alphabet while rating their confidence on a scale from 1 (not confident at all) to 7 (very confident). Four native speakers of Korean (M = 2; F = 2) produced 24 tokens of the target sounds in construction with /a/ in three different prosodic contexts, viz., prevocalic word-initial, pre-emphatic intervocalic, and post-emphatic intervocalic positions. The results show a tendency for subjects to classify both Korean fricatives as lax /s/ under most conditions, except that tense /ss/ was often separately identified when preceded by an emphasized vowel. Phonetically, Korean /ss/ is of greater duration and intensity in a post-emphatic context than elsewhere, hence more distinct from /s/ in both Korean and English and so, apparently, more easily identifiable for beginning learners.