Published 15 May 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1891
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1891

Editorials

The economic crisis and suicide

Consequences may be serious and warrant early attention

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The past few years have seen steady progress towards the Department of Health’s target to reduce suicide in England (www.lgbtmind.com/content/suicide-prevention-annual-report-2007.pdf). However, we are now amid a serious financial crisis, with frequent media reports linking the recession to suicides. What is the likely impact of the crisis on suicide and what can be done to offset any adverse effects?

The crisis is expected to lead to a sharp and sustained rise in unemployment, and observational studies indicate that unemployed people are at 2-3 times more risk of suicide.1 Although this high risk is partly because people with psychiatric illness are at greater risk of losing their jobs,2 even in people with no record of serious mental illness unemployment is still associated with about a 70% greater suicide risk.3 Also, prospective studies with repeat measures of employment and mental health show that unemployment has a causal influence on depression and . . . [Full text of this article]

David Gunnell, professor of epidemiology1, Stephen Platt, professor of health policy research 2, Keith Hawton, professor of psychiatry3

1 Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PS, 2 School of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9AG , 3 Centre for Suicide Research, University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JZ

Correspondence to: D Gunnell d.j.gunnell@bristol.ac.uk


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