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Association of temporal factors and suicides in the United States, 2000-2004
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 07/01/09

It was concluded that the observed association between seasonality and suicide cannot be discounted as a mere coincidence. Future research ought to focus on integrating individual level data and contextual variables when testing for seasonality effects.

Methods

Data were pooled from the Multiple Cause of Death Files.
Hierarchical logistic regression models were fitted to all deaths occurring in 2000 through 2004 by suicide.

Results

The incidence of suicide was significantly higher on Wednesdays, compared to Sunday
Specifically, individuals were 99% more likely to kill themselves on Wednesday than on Sunday.econd bullet
Suicides were more prevalent in the summer months, and they were less likely to occur in winter.
The results held even after controlling for the potentially confounding effects of socio-economic and demographic variables at both the individual and state levels.

Exclusive Author Commentary
Augustine J. Kposowa, 07/01/09

The findings in this article clearly show that with regard to suicide, common sense perceptions are often not true. Sociological studies constantly remind us that what people assume to be true frequently turns out untrue when subjected to empirical verification. It has long been assumed that somehow, winter is associated with greater levels of depression, anxiety, and seasonally linked affective disorders. Therefore, the argument goes, suicide rates should be higher in the winter. Another assumption often made is that there are high levels of social isolation in winter, and again suicide risks should be higher in the winter. Findings from this study strongly contradict these commonsense assumptions. Findings further indicate that at least in the United States, there has been a significant shift in the days associated with higher levels of suicide. It used to be Monday, but it now appears from this investigation based on a huge data set that Wednesday is the day that Wednesday has taken on that dubious distinction. We also find that like most individual mortality events, the structural environment impacts individual behavior. States with high suicide rates increase suicide risks for individuals in those states. Greater supply of physicians reduce the risk of suicide. What this suggests is that attention needs to be paid to easier and better access to health care. Another investigation that I did recently (in J of Community Psychology) found that counties with more psychiatrists per 10,000 experienced a slight decrease in suicide. On the whole, the article in Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology should lead researchers to avoid the temptation of attributing seasonality to chance. There is clearly some link between seasonality and suicide, and we ought to find out why?

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