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13 Perspective: Suicide in Europe
Author(s) -
Schmidtke Armin
Publication year - 1997
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.1997.tb00509.x
Subject(s) - parasuicide , suicide rates , demography , ethnic group , epidemiology , public health , suicide prevention , environmental health , mental health , perspective (graphical) , geography , medicine , poison control , psychology , psychiatry , suicide attempt , political science , sociology , nursing , law , artificial intelligence , computer science
In many European countries, suicidal behavior constitutes a major public and mental health problem. In most countries, the number of suicides is significantly higher than the number of deaths due to traffic accidents. According to official figures, the suicide rates among European countries differ widely; for example, Hungary has the highest rates. Suicide attempt rates, based on data from the WHO/Euro Multicentre project on Parasuicide, equally show variation; for example, the highest average rate of suicide attempts is for Helsinki, Finland. This paper outlines the epidemiological findings and then presents some hypotheses (e.g., age, ethnic difference) to explain the differences.