Citation

Pritchard C. Acta Psychiatr. Scand. 1996; 93(5): 362-367.

Affiliation

Department of Social Work Studies, University of Southampton, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8792906

Abstract

Throughout the developed world suicide is predominantly associated with psychiatric disorders and substance misuse. The main social factors are age, as suicide increases with each decade, and gender, as suicide is more frequent among men than women, and proportionately more young men die than their female peers. An analysis of suicide in the People's Republic of China found that the profile was the opposite to that reported in the rest of the world, as more female subjects kill themselves than males, particularly younger women. Also, unlike the situation in other countries, suicide occurred more often in rural than in urban areas. It is argued that the Chinese data provide evidence of a greater cultural influence upon suicide rates than had previously been realized.

Language: en