No Evidence of Suicide Increase Following Terrorist Attacks in the United States: an Interrupted Time-Series Analysis of September 11 and Oklahoma City

There is substantial evidence of detrimental psychological sequelae following disasters, including terrorist attacks. The effect of these events on extreme responses such as suicide, however, is unclear. This study tested competing hypotheses about such effects by employing autoregressive integrated moving average techniques to model the impact of September 11 & the Oklahoma City bombing on monthly suicide counts at the local, state, & national level. Unlike prior studies that provided conflicting evidence, rigorous time series techniques revealed no support for an increase or decrease in suicides following these events. It is concluded that while terrorist attacks produce subsequent psychological morbidity, these effects are not strong enough to influence levels of suicide mortality. (58 refs.)