BMJ 1994;309:58 (2 July)

Letters

Suicide as an indicator of mental health

EDITOR, - David Gunnell and Stephen Frankel raise many important points with regard to preventing suicide.1 The reasons why they focus on suicide as an indicator of mental health are clearly discussed. The fact that a reduction in the number of suicides is the only quantified target in the Health of the Nation,2,3 however, means that priorities may be determined by this rather than by measures to "reduce ill health and death caused by mental illness." Gunnell and Frankel identify the risk that the suicide target may lead to "possibly erroneous service activity that could be better deployed in other ways." There is another risk - namely, that, by focusing on a rare outcome, priority assessments may downgrade issues concerning mental health.

This is shown in the paper by Bruce G Charlton and colleagues, who used the "indicative prevalence" to help set health promotion priorities in general practice.4 They used . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Prevention of suicide: aspirations and evidence
D Gunnell and S Frankel
BMJ 1994 308: 1227-1233. [Extract] [Full Text]

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