RESEARCH REPORTS

Suicide methods in Europe: a gender-specific analysis of countries participating in the "European Alliance Against Depression"

A Värnik^1,2, K Kõlves¹, C M van der Feltz-Cornelis³, A Marusic⁴, H Oskarsson⁵, A Palmer⁶, T Reisch⁷, G Scheerder⁸, E Arensman⁹, E Aromaa¹⁰, G Giupponi¹¹, R Gusmäo¹², M Maxwell¹³, C Pull¹⁴, A Szekely¹⁵, V Pérez Sola¹⁶, U Hegerl¹⁷

¹ Estonian-Swedish Mental Health and Suicidology Institute, Estonian Centre of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Estonia
² Tallinn University, Estonia
³ Trimbos-Instituut/Utrecht and VU Medical Centre, Institute of Extramural Research, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
⁴ University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia
⁵ Directorate of Health Campaign Against Depression and Suicide, Seltjarnarnes, Iceland
⁶ Centre for Health Services Studies, University of Kent, UK
⁷ University of Bern, Department of Psychiatry, Bern, Switzerland
⁸ Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, LUCAS-Centre, Leuven, Belgium
⁹ National Suicide Research Foundation, Cork, Ireland
¹⁰ Vaasa Central Hospital, Psychiatric Unit, Vaasa, Finland
¹¹ S Maurizo Hospital Bolzano, Bozen, Italy
¹² Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Lisbon, Portugal
¹³ Department of Applied Social Sciences, University of Stirling, UK
¹⁴ Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
¹⁵ Semmelweis University Budapest, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
¹⁶ Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain
¹⁷ University of Leipzig, Department of Psychiatry, Leipzig, Germany

Correspondence to:
Dr A Värnik, Estonian-Swedish Mental Health and Suicidology Institute, Õie 39, Tallinn 11615, Estonia; airiv{at}online.ee; airi.varnik{at}ipm.ki.se

Objective: To identify the most frequent gender-specific suicide methods in Europe.

Design: Proportions of seven predominant suicide methods utilised in 16 countries participating in the European Alliance Against Depression (EAAD) were reported in total and cross-nationally. Relative risk (RR) relating to suicide methods and gender was calculated. To group countries by pattern of suicide methods, hierarchical clustering was applied.

Setting and participants: Data on suicide methods for 119 122 male and 41 338 female cases in 2000–4/5 from 16 EAAD countries, covering 52% of European population were obtained.

Results: Hanging was the most prevalent suicide method among both males (54.3%) and females (35.6%). For males, hanging was followed by firearms (9.7%) and poisoning by drugs (8.6%); for females, by poisoning by drugs (24.7%) and jumping from a high place (14.5%). Only in Switzerland did hanging rank as second for males after firearms. Hanging ranked first among females in eight countries, poisoning by drugs in five and jumping from a high place in three. In all countries, males had a higher risk than females of using firearms and hanging and a lower risk of poisoning by drugs, drowning and jumping. Grouping showed that countries might be divided into five main groups among males; for females, grouping did not yield clear results.

Conclusions: Research on suicide methods could lead to the development of gender-specific intervention strategies. Nevertheless, other approaches, such as better identification and treatment of mental disorders and the improvement of toxicological aid should be put in place.

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