The Influence of Media Reporting of the Suicide of a Celebrity on Suicide Rates: a Population-Based Study

The impact of media reporting of a male television celebrity on suicides in Taiwan was investigated. All 10,945 suicides during 2003-2005 were included in the study. A Poisson time series autoregression analysis was conducted to examine whether there was an increase in suicides during the 4-week period after extensive media reporting. After controlling for seasonal variation, calendar year, temperature, humidity, & the unemployment rate, there was a marked increase in the number of suicides in the 4-week period following the media reporting. The increase was in men & for individuals using the same method. However, the age groups in which the increase occurred were younger than the age of the celebrity who died. (28 refs.)