Attempted Suicide in Newcastle upon Tyne

Abstract

“A suicidal attempt is any act of self-damage inflicted with self-destructive intention, however vague and ambiguous. Sometimes this intention has to be inferred from the patient's behaviour.”In recent years a number of studies on attempted suicide in various cities in England and Scotland have been published (Batchelor, 1954a and b; Stengel and Cook, 1958; Harrington and Cross, 1959; Middleton et al., 1961; Kessel and Lee, 1962; Sclare and Hamilton, 1963). Direct comparison between these suicides is difficult, not only because they differ in presentation but also because regional and cultural differences contribute to varying clinical and epidemiological data. There is, however, general agreement that cases of attempted suicide have become depressingly common problems in the casualty departments and wards of most general hospitals in larger cities. The Ministry of Health Circular H.M. (61) 94 estimates that the annual incidence of attempted suicide in England and Wales is around 30,000 cases. The present writers agree with Stengel (1963) that this is likely to be an underestimate.