Citation

Shaman J, Kandula S, Pei S, Galanti M, Olfson M, Gould M, Keyes K. Sci. Adv. 2024; 10(31): eadq4074.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, American Association for the Advancement of Science)

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adq4074

PMID

39083618

PMCID

PMC11290520

Abstract

The spread of suicidal behavior among individuals is often described as a contagion; however, rigorous modeling of suicide as a dynamic, contagious process is minimal. Here, we develop and validate a model-inference system depicting suicide ideation and death and use it to quantify the contagion processes in the US associated with two prominent celebrity suicide events: Robin Williams during 2014 and Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, which occurred 3 days apart during 2018. We show that both events produced large transient increases of suicide contagion contact rates, i.e., the spread of suicidal thought and behavior, and a period of elevated suicidal ideation in the general population. Our modeling approach provides a framework for quantifying suicidal contagion and better understanding, preventing, and containing its spread.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Female; Male; United States/epidemiology; *Suicide/psychology; *Suicidal Ideation