Death Diagnoses Among Suicides: an Overview Based on Official Danish Records, 1972-1993

On the basis of printouts of the Danish Central Death Register compiled by the National Board of Health, the frequencies of the 3 types of death diagnosis stated on the death certificate have been calculated for all deaths registered as suicide during a period of 22 years. Number of suicides registered under a psychiatric diagnosis decreased during the period from 76 to 59% for males & from 79 to 66% for females. For both sexes, the most frequent psychiatric diagnosis was non-classifiable psychoses; for males the 2nd most frequent diagnosis was alcoholism; for females manic depression, closely followed by alcoholism. (13 refs)