Does Means Matter?: Differences in Characteristics of Finnish Suicide Completers Using Different Methods

The authors set out to investigate whether completed suicides by different methods show disparities in their sociodemographic & clinical characteristics, using data from the National Suicide Prevention Project in Finland. They found that intoxication suicides were more often female with a history of previous attempts & psychiatric treatment, whereas suicides by shooting were the opposite in character. Reasons for these disparities & their implications for prevention are discussed. (36 refs)