Citation

Ashton JR, Donnan S. Psychol. Med. 1981; 11(4): 735-739.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1981, Cambridge University Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

7323229

Abstract

An epidemic of suicide by burning in England and Wales occurred during the one-year period October 1978 to October 1979, following a widely publicized political suicide. For the 82 cases, death certificates were obtained and coroners' inquest reports sought. The victims were predominantly young single men or older married women; both groups had strong psychiatric histories; and there were no suicides which had political overtones, apart from the index case. Compared with suicides by this method in the past, a higher proportion of victims were born in the UK. It is proposed that a code of practice for the reporting of suicides by the media is required.

Language: en