Clusters of death by suicide have long been of intense public interest. Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther was associated with a group of so-called copycat suicides after its publication in 1774- More recently, suicide clusters have driven the plots of detective series such as Inspector Morse and Sherlock.In the real world, media attention after a series of cases of suicide in Bridgend, UK, from 2007-08 triggered a flood of speculation about potential causes. Yet little is really known about suicide clusters: partly because the statistical approach to classifying and studying connected suicides has been dependent on the development of advanced computer-aided epidemi-ological methods, but also because of concerns that inappropriate discussion of such clusters might act as a vector for self-injurious behaviour.
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