Year: 1994
Type: article
Abstract: Contents: Suicide prevention in GotlandlDefeating depression in Zimbabwe/Chromosomal aberration and bipolar affective disorder/Genetics, chance and dysmorphogenesis in schizophrenia/Cognitive behavioural therapy for schizophrenia/Anorexia nervosa and schizophrenia/Mental retardation and pandemic influenza/Ejaculation associated with zuclopenthixoYSleep disturbance in schizophrenia.Suicide prevention in Gotland Sn: The reinterpretation by MacDonald (BJP, August 1993, 163, 260) of the Gotland suicide data (Rutz Ct a!, 1992) has provoked debate about suicide prevention initiatives.However, MacDonald made a simple but critical error in his analysis of the Gotland data.Using a five year moving average, he suggested that the suicide rate following the GP depression education programme was part of a longer downward trend in the suicide rate on Gotland.Taking a moving average of time series data is a well-recognised method of smoothing a graph so that trends may be seen more clearly.However, if an intervention is introduced, the moving window must stop at the last data point before the intervention.Otherwise the window is gradually contaminated by more and more data points from the intervention phase.MacDonald did not do this.Using MacDonald's five year moving average but stopping the window prior to the intervention gives a different picture.Prior to the intervention there are three successive drops in the smoothed graph (of 1.9, 1.2 and 2.7 per 100 000 respectively).How ever, the first post-intervention data point is 7.0 per 100 000 lower again than the last point prior to the intervention.This is a much larger drop than that between any two prior data points, and much larger than the apparent figures shown by MacDonald.Taken together with the recent evidence from Hungary of a relation between the number of physicians available, the rate of diagnosed depres sion and the suicide rate (Rihmer et a!, 1993), we believe that the implications for suicide prevention by general practitioners cannot be ignored.
Institutions: Maudsley Hospital, University of Zimbabwe
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2061330574