Suicide in the UK: questioning ourselves

摘要

Suicide rates touch the national psyche in a way that few other statistics can. While cancer mortality rates, for example, might make a society question the effectiveness of its health service, suicide rates make a society question itself.Data from the Office for National Statistics' bulletin, Suicide in the United Kingdom, released on Jan 22, are therefore of national concern. In 2011, 6045 deaths by suicide-a rate of 11-8 deaths per 100000 population-were recorded in the UK, an increase of 437 deaths compared with the previous year (5608 deaths; 111 deaths per 100 000 population). A minor proportion of this number might be due to an alteration in the coding of narrative verdicts from coroners' courts, and a change in the version of ICD-10 software used. Yet it is clear that these figures represent a real and substantial increase in deaths by suicide. It is a problem that must be addressed by health-care workers, policy makers, and society as a whole.