Why is it that although Finland is a wonderful place to live, very clean, organised and civilised with a very good child and health care system, free education, indifinetely long unemployment benefits etc and all the goodies that make its citizen's feel unstressed has more than six times higher suicide rates than Greece ?
I am sure that Bob L., an American who currently is living in Finland, a well travelled person, been to Greece, and a regular reader of this blog will give us an answer to this question, as the scientific analysis on the aetiology of this phenomenon is frequently contradictory and in all cases confusing.
PS: Finland suicide rates are also double those in the US!
10 comments:
Ils naissent et meurent et n'ont pas de soucis majeurs???durant leur vie.
nothing to really look forward to? Il y a de quoi se flinguer.
L'ideal est de les mettre dans des bus et les envoyer chez nous.Au bout d'un mois on ne parlera plus de suicide.
Hahaha! So you think if you bus the would be Finn suicide candidates to Beirut within a month they will change their mind hey? Is it because they will think twice commiting suicide after they see what happens to your local suicide bombers? :-))))
George, I don't think there is anything here that requires great scientific thinking. As a matter of fact I even experienced some feelings that on a deeper level would lead one to that end. Summer in Finland is delightful, long days, pleasant temperature and a wonderful feeling that leads you to outdoor activities. As autumn enters and the days become continually shorter at a much greater rate than at the warmer latitudes you get to feel something like sadness. Even I, who was raised in more southern latitudes felt a feeling of sadness that the summer and the lightness was leaning. In addition as the temperature changes there is much more of a feeling or disire to hibernate, that is to stay indoors, whether alone or not because it is dark anc cold outside. I would say that walking Oskar (dog) is one thing that kept me outside. When you couple this with a propensity toward alcohol which has been a problem here for years ( and is recognized as such) that you could, and I repeat could become depressed enough to decide to end it all. The government has recognized this problem and is trying to develop methods to combat it. I am not sure a demographic study has been made regarding age and income as relates to this problem but it could be interesting.BTW, a bus to a sunnier climate would help solve the problem.
The confusion arose with me, Bob, because some studies were showing that there was no statistically significant difference of the number of suicides committed in winter vs summer.
it would be interesting to know whether suicide rates are also high in other very northern countries (eg Greenland or Iceland or the north of Norway or Sweden). Alaska would of course need to be excluded from the analysis since any tendency there towards suicidal thoughts would be cancelled out by their sheer happiness at having such excellent Governors.
For what its worth---
Seasonal patterns of death from suicide are well-documented and have been attributed to climatic factors such as solar radiation and ambient temperature. However, studies on the impact of weather and climate on suicide are not consistent, and conflicting data have been reported. In this study, we performed a correlation analysis between nationwide suicide rates and weather variables in Finland during the period 1971–2003. The weather parameters studied were global solar radiation, temperature and precipitation, and a range of time spans from 1 month to 1 year were used in order to elucidate the dose-response relationship, if any, between weather variables and suicide. Single and multiple linear regression models show weak associations using 1-month and 3-month time spans, but robust associations using a 12-month time span. Cumulative global solar radiation had the best explanatory power, while average temperature and cumulative precipitation had only a minor impact on suicide rates. Our results demonstrate that winters with low global radiation may increase the risk of suicide. The best correlation found was for the 5-month period from November to March; the inter-annual variability in the cumulative global radiation for that period explained 40 % of the variation in the male suicide rate and 14 % of the variation in the female suicide rate, both at a statistically significant level. Long-term variations in global radiation may also explain, in part, the observed increasing trend in the suicide rate until 1990 and the decreasing trend since then in Finland.
If you click on the blue underlined :suicide rates" in the post Elwyn you will see the other countries. Unfortunately Alaska numbers are included in the US and thus we are unable to see the tremendous reduction of suicides since Palin decided to step down as Governor. :-)
Thanks Bob for your posts on this
There is a major phychological disease called SAD
Basically Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), also known as winter depression or winter blues, is a mood disorder in which people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year experience depressive symptoms in the winter or, less frequently, in the summer,[1] spring or fall, repeatedly, year after year. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), SAD is not a unique mood disorder, but is "a specifier of major depression".[2]
For more info check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder
a quick fix is intake of vitamine D and sunbox exposure (when sunlight is not available)
Elwyn, I just loved your comment on Alaska's residents. Excellent!
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