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Economic crisis-related increased suicidality in Greece and Italy: a premature overinterpretation
  1. Konstantinos N Fountoulakis1,
  2. Melina Siamouli1,
  3. Ilias A Grammatikopoulos2,
  4. Sotirios A Koupidis3,
  5. Marianna Siapera4,
  6. Pavlos N Theodorakis5
  1. 13rd Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
  2. 2Private Practice, Veroia, Greece
  3. 3National School of Public Health, Evaggelismos General Hospital, Athens, Greece
  4. 4Physician, Thessaloniki, Greece
  5. 5Open University of Cyprus, Advisory Board, Social Cooperative, 8th Athens Mental Health Sector, Athens, Greece
  1. Correspondence to Dr Konstantinos N Fountoulakis, 3rd Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 6, Odysseos Street, Thessaloniki 55535, Greece; kfount{at}med.auth.gr

https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2012-201902

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    Sir,

    Recently a paper suggested that the economic crisis was responsible for a dramatic increase in suicidal rates in Italy1 and the same authors insist that a similar phenomenon is happening in Greece.2 The relevant data are shown in table 1. However, interpretation can be made:

    1. In Italy, the reported completed suicidal rates are almost identical with those of attempted suicide. This is highly unlikely and in contrast to the international literature. Registered suicide attempts are reported to be at least 5–10 times higher than completed suicide. …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors KNF had the original idea, did the literature search, analysed and interpreted the data, authored and reviewed the manuscript. MS (Siamouli), IAG, SAK and MS (Siapera) did the literature search, analysed and interpreted the data and coauthored the manuscript. PNT analysed and interpreted the data, coauthored and reviewed the manuscript.

    • Funding None.

    • Competing interests None.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

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