@article{ref1,
title="Seasonality of Suicide: Relationship with the Reason for Suicide",
journal="Neuropsychobiology",
year="2007",
author="Rocchi, Marco B. and Sisti, Davide and Miotto, P. and Preti, A.",
volume="56",
number="2-3",
pages="86-92",
abstract="Aims: This study set out to test the hypothesis that the suicides that can be attributed to a psychiatric illness show a higher seasonality than the suicides due to any other reason. Methods: All the suicides registered in Italy from 1984 to 2000 (57,796 deaths by suicide: males = 41,741, yearly rate = 11.3 per 100,000; females = 16,055, yearly rate = 4.0 per 100,000) were analyzed with circular statistic techniques, based on the maximization of mean vector length method and on the Rayleigh test. Results: The suicides clearly attributed to a psychiatric illness were 35.0% among males and 51.3% among females. An economic reason for suicide was more frequently found among males; somatic illness or sentimental reasons were equally distributed in both sexes. The suicides attributable to a psychiatric illness showed a significantly higher seasonal unevenness than the suicides attributable to somatic illness and to sentimental or economic reasons. Conclusions: The main drawback of this study is that psychiatric diagnoses were not formally assessed by a forensic specialist. However, it succeeded in showing that the dynamics of suicidal behaviour are not unilineal: suicides due to psychiatric or somatic illness mainly happen in spring/summer and those due to economic difficulties mainly in December. Patients with psychiatric and/or somatic illness should be more carefully followed in spring/summer.   <p></p>  <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0302-282X",
doi="10.1159/000111538",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000111538"
}