Teenage Suicide Notes

Author(s):  
Terry Williams
Crisis ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamás Zonda

The author examined completed suicides occurring over a period of 25 years in a county of Hungary with a traditionally low (relatively speaking) suicide rate of 25.8. The rates are clearly higher in villages than in the towns. The male/female ratio was close to 4:1, among elderly though only 1.5:1. The high risk groups are the elderly, divorced, and widowed. Violent methods are chosen in 66.4% of the cases. The rates are particularly high in the period April-July. Prior communication of suicidal intention was revealed in 16.3% of all cases. Previous attempts had been undertaken by 17%, which in turn means that 83% of suicides were first attempts. In our material 10% the victims left suicide notes. Psychiatric disorders were present in 60.1% of the cases, and severe, multiple somatic illnesses (including malignomas) were present in 8.8%. The majority of the data resemble those found in the literature.


Crisis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Egnoto ◽  
Darrin J. Griffin

Abstract. Background: Identifying precursors that will aid in the discovery of individuals who may harm themselves or others has long been a focus of scholarly research. Aim: This work set out to determine if it is possible to use the legacy tokens of active shooters and notes left from individuals who completed suicide to uncover signals that foreshadow their behavior. Method: A total of 25 suicide notes and 21 legacy tokens were compared with a sample of over 20,000 student writings for a preliminary computer-assisted text analysis to determine what differences can be coded with existing computer software to better identify students who may commit self-harm or harm to others. Results: The results support that text analysis techniques with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) tool are effective for identifying suicidal or homicidal writings as distinct from each other and from a variety of student writings in an automated fashion. Conclusion: Findings indicate support for automated identification of writings that were associated with harm to self, harm to others, and various other student writing products. This work begins to uncover the viability or larger scale, low cost methods of automatic detection for individuals suffering from harmful ideation.


Crisis ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoon A. Leenaars

Summary: Older adults consistently have the highest rates of suicide in most societies. Despite the paucity of studies until recently, research has shown that suicides in later life are best understood as a multidimensional event. An especially neglected area of research is the psychological/psychiatric study of personality factors in the event. This paper outlines one comprehensive model of suicide and then raises the question: Is such a psychiatric/psychological theory applicable to all suicides in the elderly? To address the question, I discuss the case of Sigmund Freud; raise the topic of suicide and/or dignified death in the terminally ill; and examine suicide notes of the both terminally ill and nonterminally ill elderly. I conclude that, indeed, greater study and theory building are needed into the “suicides” of the elderly, including those who are terminally ill.


Crisis ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 416-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoon A. Leenaars ◽  
Gudrun Dieserud ◽  
Susanne Wenckstern ◽  
Kari Dyregrov ◽  
David Lester ◽  
...  

Abstract. Background: Theory is the foundation of science; this is true in suicidology. Over decades of studies of suicide notes, Leenaars developed a multidimensional model of suicide, with international (crosscultural) studies and independent verification. Aim: To corroborate Leenaars's theory with a psychological autopsy (PA) study, examining age and sex of the decedent, and survivor's relationship to deceased. Method: A PA study in Norway, with 120 survivors/informants was undertaken. Leenaars' theoretical–conceptual (protocol) analysis was undertaken of the survivors' narratives and in-depth interviews combined. Results: Substantial interjudge reliability was noted (κ = .632). Overall, there was considerable confirmatory evidence of Leenaars's intrapsychic and interpersonal factors in suicide survivors' narratives. Differences were found in the age of the decedent, but not in sex, nor in the survivor's closeness of the relationship. Older deceased people were perceived to exhibit more heightened unbearable intrapsychic pain, associated with the suicide. Conclusion: Leenaars's theory has corroborative verification, through the decedents' suicide notes and the survivors' narratives. However, the multidimensional model needs further testing to develop a better evidence-based way of understanding suicide.


1967 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry Jacobs

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