A STUDY OF SUICIDES IN SWEDEN 1951–63, INCLUDING A COMPARISON WITH 1925–1950

Abstract

In an earlier work the author analysed the known suicides in Sweden in 1925–1950, dividing the material, to simplify matters, into two equal periods of thirteen years, 1925–1937 and 1938–1950. Since then further information has become available from the annual summaries of the Swedish statistics on the causes of death, bringing the record up to 1963. A comparison may be made between the old material “Suicide in Sweden 1925–1950”, Acta Psychiatrica et Neurol. Scandinav. 1957:32, 151–181 and the new. In this study, however, the 1925–1950 material has been recapitulated only in so far as it elucidates the fresh findings, and facilitates a survey of the entire period 1925–1963. For general observations on genesis as well as for an explanation of the analytical methods employed, the reader is referred to the previous work. At present the main interest lies in discovering if the general theories developed from an examination of the earlier material still hold good with regard to more recent facts and figures on suicides in Sweden.