Citation

Claassen CA, Carmody T, Bossarte RM, Trivedi MH, Elliott S, Currier GW. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 2008; 38(6): 637-649.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, American Association of Suicidology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1521/suli.2008.38.6.637

PMID

19152295

Abstract

Fatal and nonfatal intentional self-harm events in eight U.S. states were compared using emergency department, hospital, and vital statistics data. Nonfatal event rates increased by an estimated 24.20% over 6 years. Case fatality ratios varied widely, but two northeastern states' total event rates (fatal plus nonfatal) were very high (New Hampshire 206.5/100,000 person years; Massachusetts 166.7/100,000). Geographic context did not uniformly impact the likelihood of self-harm across event types. The state-level public health burden posed by such acts cannot, therefore, be accurately estimated from either mortality or morbidity data alone.

Language: en