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San Diego Suicide Study: Comparison of Gay to Straight Males
Author(s) -
Rich Charles L.,
Fowler Richard C.,
Young Deborah,
Blenkush Mary
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1111/j.1943-278x.1986.tb00730.x
Subject(s) - suicide prevention , sexual orientation , poison control , injury prevention , psychiatry , human factors and ergonomics , substance abuse , occupational safety and health , medicine , suicide methods , psychology , clinical psychology , demography , medical emergency , suicide rates , social psychology , pathology , sociology
Previous large studies of completed suicides have not considered sexual orientation in their data analyses. In this study, data from the known homosexual subpopulation (13 males, aged 21–42) in a series of 283 suicides were examined. They were compared with all other aged male suicides 21–42 ( n = 106). Both groups showed considerable substance abuse plus a variety of other psychiatric diagnoses. Both also had a high frequency of relationship difficulties near the time of death. Gays who committed suicide did not have a history of more police trouble and were no more likely to be living alone than the comparison group. They did not have more prior suicide attempts or previous psychiatric treatment. We conclude that, among the factors examined here, there appears to be little difference between gay and heterosexual male suicides.