Citation

Mäkinen IH. Psychiatr. Danub. 2006; 18(Suppl 1): 139-140.

Affiliation

Södertörn University College, P.O. 14189 Huddinge, Sweden. Ilkka.Makinen@sh.se.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Facultas Universitatis Studiorum Zagrabiensis - Danube Symposion of Psychiatry)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

16964126

Abstract

This study investigates the spatial distribution and concomitants of Eastern European suicide mortality before and after the Communist period. Regional data on suicide and possible concomitants (alcohol, homicide, divorce, urbanity) were collected from "European Russia" 1910, and from corresponding areas 1989. Regional continuity across time was studied with specially constructed geographical units. Suicide was common 1910 in Northern Baltic, in the central parts of North and Central Russia, the urbanized parts of Northern Poland, in Eastern Ukraine, and in Northern Caucasus. The rates were low in South Russia, Dagestan, and Southern Poland. The main concomitants were urbanity, wealth, and divorce. 1989, suicide was most common in the Urals, the Eastern Russian "ethnic" areas, and in South-East Russia, being low in Poland, Moldavia, and Northern Caucasus. Its concomitants varied country-wise, but death rates, alcohol, and homicide were often positively correlated. Spatial distributions of suicide in 1910 and 1989 did not correlate with each other. The lack of continuity is interpreted partly as that of strong regional cultures, partly as a change in suicide itself from an urban, upper-class phenomenon into a conventional social problem.

Language: en