November 30th, 2009

Did you know that the media plays an important role in whether or not there are copycats after a suicide?

Reports NPR:

Scientists define a suicide cluster as three or more suicides in a specific location that occur over a short period of time. On average, there are five suicide clusters each year in the United States, according to psychiatric epidemiologist Madelyn Gould at Columbia University in New York City.

Gould has found that suicide clusters are a relatively rare event, accounting for fewer than 5 percent of all suicides in teenagers and young adults. The most distinctive feature about suicide clusters is that they occur almost exclusively in teenagers, she says.

“Suicides following the exposure to someone’s death by suicide, was about two to four times higher among 15- to 19-year-olds than [in] other age groups,” Gould says.

…

In preliminary findings, Gould reports that there is no one type of community that is more susceptible to suicide clusters than another. “Every community is vulnerable,” she says. Gould has also identified a crucial characteristic that seems to play a critical role in suicide clusters. If the first suicide gets media attention, then it’s more apt to trigger other suicides. So, Gould cautions, the way the media cover a suicide can be critical.

“We know from studies that have looked at the impact of the media that there is something called the ‘dose-response association.’ So the size of the increase in suicides following a suicide story is proportional to the amount, and the duration, and the prominence of the coverage.”

There are ways that the media can cover a suicide that can actually help mitigate the risk of additional suicides, says psychiatrist Paula Clayton, medical director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, who regularly advises the media on how to report on a suicide. For example, they should report on the many complex factors that may have led up to the suicide and emphasize that 90 percent of people who kill themselves have mental health problems.

Clayton cautions, though, that using details about a suicide can increase the risk of suicide clustering. “Don’t talk about the method, or show the place where the suicide occurred. And don’t glorify it,” she says.

Find out more at NPR.