Our training program was beneficial for primary care physicians' ability to recognize and manage depression. However, there was no significant decrease in local suicide rates.

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Background: With an average suicide rate of approximately 30 per 100,000, Slovenia has been regarded as a country with a high suicide rate. In the last decade, however, the suicide rate has gradually decreased to 20.3 per 100,000. Aim: To undertake an analysis of the suicide rate and its characteristics between 1997 and 2010 and to establish whether preventive activities had a significant effect on the suicide rate in the period studied. Method: Data on all 7,317 completed suicides between 1997 and 2010 were obtained from the National Mortality Database. Trends over this period were assessed separately for gender, age, method of suicide, and regional distribution. Data on implemented suicide preventive activities were assessed via regional Public Health Institutes. Results: The suicide rate declined in both genders and in all age groups, except in males aged 10-19 years. The most frequently used method in both genders was hanging. Regions with the highest suicide rate are concentrated in the eastern part of Slovenia. The suicide rate significantly decreased in six regions, but no firm association with preventive activities could be established. Conclusion: Suicide in Slovenia declined significantly during the study period. Preventive activities appear not to have had any notable effect on this decline.

Introduction: Monitoring of health behaviours, especially of adolescents, is essential for the future of each nation. Over the last decades, many changes have occurred in all aspects of our lives, affecting the health and quality of life of all people, including children and adolescents.Methods: The study is based on a quantitative research method. The survey was conducted on a representative sample of Slovenian 11-, 13- and 15-year-old adolescents, using a standardised international questionnaire (HBSC study – Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children). The survey was carried out with the assistance of school counsellors in the spring of 2002, 2006 and 2010 (n = 15.080). For determining the correlation between two individual years, the chi-square test (c2) was used. The significance level was calculated using the statistical significance value of p ≤ 0.05. Through the Cochran-Armitage trend test, it was established whether a trend existed  for the selected indicators in the period between 2002 and 2010.Results: There are some favourable trends, e.g. eating breakfast (p = 0.000), tooth brushing (p = 0.000), lower proportion of individuals who rate their health as poor (p = 0.002) and experience several psychosomatic symptoms (p = 0.000), but also unfavourable trends, e.g. decrease in physical activity (p = 0.023), increase in early alcohol consumption (p = 0.000), dissatisfaction with school (p = 0.000) and bullying others (p = 0.000).Discussion and conclusion: The conclusions of the analyses can serve as a useful basis for further work and development of systemic measures to promote healthy behaviours and prevent risky and unhealthy behaviours among children and adolescents.

A MARUSIC † , A PETROVIC AND M ZORKOAre there only geographic differences between Western and Eastern Europe or is there more to it? We do not have to take a course on history, geography and sociology to realize that the answer to the question is a complex one. Western and Eastern Europe are distinguished not only by their position on the geographical map, but by historical and cultural differences as well. It has long been known that different populations differ in their health and well-being and the difference is most probably not only the result of different defi nitions of mental health indicators. Can the specifi c cultural differences also affect the well-being (and that in turn the suicidal rate) of the population? Without any doubts, cultures of societies are important determinants of their population health and well-being. We should fi rst remind ourselves of what a culture is. In general, the word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning 'to cultivate', generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity signifi cance. This kind of pattern of human behaviour surely indicates the way we feel, think, behave and how healthy we are. Culture could be called 'the way of life for an entire society'. As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, values, artefacts, norms of behaviour and systems of belief. If the culture defi nes the way we behave in our everyday lives, then the culture also to some extent defi nes the way we behave in stressful situations, the way we encounter problems and the way we deal with defeat. On the other hand, also the values of other people defi ne the way we behave. The culture with permissive attitudes towards suicide gives different perspective to this kind of life-ending than a culture with a history of prohibition of suicide. We can even go further: different life events may have different meaning in different cultures. If having a steady job and adequate socio-economic status in one country is of a greater value than in another, than losing a job in the fi rst country will infl uence one's well-being more. Historical aspects (wars, economic changes, history of the 'culture of suicide'…) of course also defi ne, directly and indirectly, mental health of the population.Western and Eastern European countries markedly differ in national suicide rates. In general, the suicide rate in Western Europe is between 5 and 20 suicides per 100 000, and is rather lower than in Eastern Europe where suicide rate is placed between 10 and more than 40 suicides per 100 000 (HFA-MDB). Cantor (2002) reminded us that suicide rates in Eastern European countries increased in the period between 1987 and 1991-1992, while the male-female suicide ratio in these countries widened. Furthermore, we also found differences in the method of completed suicide: national shares of suicides by hanging are variable, being higher in Eastern (e.g. Lithuania 90 %, Hungary 68 %, Latvia 81 %, Slovenia 62 %) compared to Western cou...