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Abstract
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When suicidologists consider how the environment may impact suicide, they typically focus on the social and economic environment and the interpersonal environment. For the former, Lester and Yang (1997) documented how factors such as the business cycle might impact suicide rates while, many years ago, Platt (1984) showed that unemployment increased suicide rates. As for the interpersonal environment, in articulating his interpersonal theory of suicide, Joiner (2005) argued that perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belonging were present in those who died by suicide, and Van Orden et al. (2010) reviewed research supporting the theory. But does the physical environment have an impact on suicide?
It is well documented that there is a seasonal variation in suicide rates. For example, Bando and Volpe (2014) found a seasonal pattern in São Paulo, Brazil, with a peak in late spring (November) and a trough during May-June (late autumn) for men, and a peak in January and a trough during June-July for women. Chris Cornell, a rock-and-roll musician from Seattle, died by suicide in May 2017, and Schwartz (2019) noted that Cornell's lyrics contain clear indicators of mixed depressive and seasonal imagery, suggesting that the yearly suicide risk becomes maximal when winter turns to spring and there emerges a mixed mood state. The seasonal variation in suicides could be a result of changes in patterns of social interaction at the end of winter or a result of meteorological changes. However, Moore et al. (2018) reported that the seasonal variation of suicides at the Tay Road Bridge in Scotland (for the period 1968-2017) was found even after controls for temperature and hours of sunshine.
Also illustrating the impact of the environment on suicide, there is evidence that naturally occurring variations in water supplies can impact suicidal behavior. For example, it was noted back in the 1970s that water supplies differ in the amount of naturally occurring lithium in the drinking water (a medication approved for treating patients with bipolar affective disorder). In a recent meta-analysis of 13 ecological studies and one cohort study testing this association, Barjasteh-Askari et al. (2020) found a significant preventive association for men (odds ratio [OR] = 0.54, p <.01) and a trend for women (OR = 0.70, p = 0.06).
There have been several research studies on the impact of natural disasters on suicide. Orui (2020) found an increase in male suicide rates after the earthquake in March 2011 in the east of Japan (in Miyagi prefecture) and also during the recovery phase. On the other hand, Chen et al. (2016) found a decrease in suicide rates after the 1999 earthquake in Taiwan in the affected regions as compared with the unaffected regions, while Rodrigo and colleagues (2009) found no impact on suicide rates in Sri Lanka after the tsunami in 2004. Kõlves et al. (2013) reviewed research on the impact of earthquakes, hurricanes and cyclones, tsunamis, floods, heat waves and droughts on suicide and, although they found evidence for an increase in suicide after natural disasters, they found several methodological problems with the research (such as a failure to control for economic changes).
Climate change appears to be increasing the occurrence of extremes in weather conditions...
Language: en |