Suicides 'high among young men'

Feb 9 2012

The gap between suicide rates north and south of the border is widening and is largely down to the rise in the number of young Scottish men taking their own life, statistics show.

Research which examined suicide rates in Scotland and England and Wales between 1960 and 2008 shows three distinct phases over the years.

The suicide rate in both men and women was lower in Scotland until around 1968 when it overtook England and Wales. Suicide numbers among men continued to rise on both sides of the border until the early 1990s when the rate in England and Wales began to fall, and the gap between north and south widened markedly.

Researchers said the divergence has been driven by a marked increase in suicide among Scottish young adults, especially males and particularly deaths by hanging in this group.

The research was carried out by the universities of Manchester and Edinburgh and the Medical Research Council's Social and Public Health Sciences Unit in Glasgow. It was funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government and published online by the British Journal of Psychiatry.

It looked at suicide trends by gender and age group, as well as method of suicide.

Joint lead researcher Dr Roger Webb, from Manchester University's Centre for Suicide Prevention, said: "One of the key changes in methods used during the study period was the marked increase in suicide by hanging, particularly among young men in Scotland.

"This is of particular concern as hanging has high case-fatality and is difficult to prevent, except within institutional settings.

"It has been proposed that a public information campaign about hanging would be the most useful way to tackle the increase of suicide deaths by this method."

Joint lead researcher Professor Stephen Platt, from the Centre for Population Health Sciences at Edinburgh University, said: "This study adds to our understanding about patterns of suicide in Great Britain by producing sound evidence on divergences in long-term trends in Scotland compared to England and Wales. In a future companion paper we will suggest explanations for the persisting higher rate of suicide in Scotland."