Controlling the Environment to Prevent Suicide: International Perspectives

Leenaars, Antoon A.; Cantor, Chris; Connolly, John F.; EchoHawk, Marlene; Gailienė, Danutė; He, Zhao Xiong; Kokorina, Natalia; Lester, David; Lopatin, Andrew; Rodríguez, Mario; Schlebusch, Lourens; Takahashi, Yoshitomo; Vijayakumar, Lakshmi; Wenckstern, Susanne

doi:10.1177/070674370004500706

Cited by 48 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Natural experiments from other countries provide evidence of the dominant role that the ready availability of highly lethal, commonly used means can play in determining suicide mortality rates (4,35,41,49,51,53,66,69,77,80). The most famous and dramatic largescale natural experiment that drew attention to the benefits of means restriction has been called the Coal Gas Story (50,64).…”

Section: Reducing Access To Lethal Meansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suicide Mortality in the United States: The Importance of Attending to Method in Understanding Population-Level Disparities in the Burden of Suicide

Miller

Azrael

Barber

2012

Annu. Rev. Public Health

243

153

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Suicide mortality varies widely across age, sex, race, and geography, far more than does mortality from the leading causes of natural death. Unlike the tight correlation between cancer mortality and the incidence of cancer, suicide mortality is only modestly correlated with the incidence of suicidal acts and other established risk factors for suicidal behavior, such as major psychiatric disorders. An implication of this modest correlation is that the proportion of all suicidal acts that prove fatal (the case fatality ratio) must account for a substantial portion of the (nonrandom) variation observed in suicide mortality. In the United States, the case fatality ratio is strongly related to the availability of household firearms. Findings from ecologic and individual-level studies conducted over the past two decades illustrate the importance of accounting for the availability of highly lethal suicide methods in efforts to understand (and ultimately reduce) disparities in suicide mortality across populations.

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Section: Reducing Access To Lethal Meansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suicide Mortality in the United States: The Importance of Attending to Method in Understanding Population-Level Disparities in the Burden of Suicide

Miller

Azrael

Barber

2012

Annu. Rev. Public Health

243

153

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“…In the United States, for example, firearms are the most common method of suicide among males as well as females (Maris et al, 2000) and ownership has been only occasionally restricted. Research indicates that the suicide rate is positively correlated with the production, sales, and ownership of guns (Kellerman & Reay, 1986) and negatively correlated with strict ownership laws (e.g., Leenaars et al, 2000). Accordingly, at the macro level, policymakers can have an important role in the prevention of adolescent suicide when they set strict firearm control laws.…”

Section: Macrosystem-level Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adolescent suicide: An ecological approach

Ayyash-Abdo

2002

Psychology in the Schools

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Adolescent suicide, which has been ranked among the top 10 causes of death in the world, is an issue of increasing concern to school psychologists, educators, and parents. Here an ecological approach is proposed to enhance our understanding of how personal, interpersonal, and sociocultural factors contribute to the increased risk for suicide among adolescents. The ecological approach allows exploration of how adolescent suicide is determined by multiple factors related to the adolescent's personal history or ontogenic development (e.g., depression), the influences of those individuals with whom adolescents have immediate contact with, or the microsystems (e.g., family and school), the larger social units, or the exosystems, that indirectly influence adolescents (e.g., media), and the larger culture or macrosystems (e.g., cultural differences in attitudes about suicide). In this article the interaction of several factors within and between the permeable boundaries of each of the layers of the ecological paradigm is also highlighted. Finally, examples of intervention and prevention strategies at each level of the system are set forth.

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“…It does not appear that the relationship between the suicide rate and the economic downturn is the whole answer. In this article, we suggest a need to focus on other credible reasons for suicide attempts 12,13 and aim to improve the ability of primary care and mental health professionals to identify and treat those at risk as well as educate the public.…”

Section: Studies Of the Relationship Of Suicide To Economic Hardshipmentioning

confidence: 99%