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Citation
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Menon V, Kar SK, Marthoenis M, Arafat SY, Sharma G, Kaliamoorthy C, Ransing R, Mukherjee S, Pattnaik JI, Shirahatti NB, Varadharajan N, Padhy SK. Int. J. Soc. Psychiatry 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub. |
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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Little is known about the factors that determine vulnerability to subsequent suicide in the community following a celebrity suicide. Our objective was to investigate the link between an alleged celebrity suicide and further suicidal behaviour in the community in India.
METHODS: Relevant news articles that reported suicidal behaviour in the population were retrieved from online news portals of regional and English language newspapers in the immediate month following the actor's death. A deductive analysis of the retrieved suicide news articles was carried out using a pre-designed data extraction form.
RESULTS: A total of 1160 relevant news articles were identified from the local language (n = 985) and English (n = 175) newspapers. For a sizeable percentage of these reports (n = 65, 5.6%), the media reported links with celebrity suicide. Odds of subsequent suicide among young (Odds Ratios [OR] - 9.24), female (OR - 1.94), unemployed (OR - 7.26), those without precipitating life events (OR - 2.94) or mental illness (OR - 1.69) were higher among those with link to celebrity suicide; likewise, odds of death by hanging (OR - 49.84) and leaving a suicide note (OR - 2.03) were higher among those linked to celebrity suicide. English newspapers (OR - 4.23) were more likely to report events linked to celebrity suicide than local language newspapers.
CONCLUSION: Persons who died by suicide by hanging after a celebrity suicide are more likely to be young, female, unemployed, have a mental disorder or precipitating life events. Suicide prevention efforts must focus on this group and prevent the same method of suicide like that of the celebrity.
Language: en |