Citation

J. Am. Med. Assoc. 1926; 86(11): e800.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1926, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/jama.1926.02670370070022

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

An epidemic of suicide occurred in the closing weeks of last year. It is instructive to note the relations that statistics have shown to exist between suicide and the prevailing economic situation. In a recent number of the Klinische Wochenschrift, Dr. Karl Freudenberg devotes a long article to the problem. Suicide was reduced during the war, but the reduction affected only males. Comparison of suicide statistics for the periods 1911-1913 and 1920-1922 shows that the frequency of suicide among children, which has always been about five times as common among boys as among girls, was not affected by the postwar period. In the age-groups up to age 25, in which the decision to commit suicide is usually of erotic origin, no changes are noted. The marked reduction in the middle age-groups is, however, especially striking, and the assumption has been advanced that natures with...