The accuracy of suicide statistics: Are true suicide deaths misclassified?

Official suicide statistics often produce an inaccurate view of suicide populations, since some deaths endorsed as being of uncertain manner are in fact suicides; it is common, therefore, in suicide research, to account for these deaths. We aimed to test the hypothesis that non-suicide death categories contain a large potential reservoir of misclassified suicides. Caution is needed when interpreting local area data on suicide rates, and undetermined and ill-defined deaths should be included in suicide research after excluding cases unlikely to be suicides. Improving suicide case ascertainment, using multiple sources of information, and uniform reporting practices, is advised.