Citation

Rajagopal S. Br. Med. J. BMJ 2004; 329(7478): 1298-1299.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/bmj.329.7478.1298

PMID

15576715

PMCID

PMC534825

Abstract

A suicide pact is an agreement between two or more people to commit suicide together at a given place and time. The recent deaths of nine people in Japan, in October 2004, apparently in two suicide pacts -- seven suicides in one pact and two in the other -- have brought the relatively rare phenomenon of suicide pacts into the limelight. What is unusual is that these pacts seem to have been arranged between strangers who met over the Internet and planned the tragedy via special suicide websites. This is in contrast to traditional suicide pacts, in which the victims are people with close relationships.

The recent suicide pacts in Japan might just be isolated events in a country that has even previously been shown to have the highest rate of suicide pacts. Alternatively, they might herald a new disturbing trend in suicide pacts, with more such incidents, involving strangers meeting over the Internet, becoming increasingly common. If the latter is the case then the epidemiology of suicide pacts is likely to change, with more young people living on their own, who may have otherwise committed suicide alone, joining with like minded suicidal persons to die together.

Although suicide pacts currently account for less than 1% of the total number of suicides, general practitioners and psychiatrists should continue to remain vigilant against the small but not insignificant risk of suicide pacts. While assessing risk, one may specifically ask whether a depressed patient uses the internet to obtain information about suicide.