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Firearm Suicides And Availability Of Firearms: The Swiss Experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

V. Ajdacic-Gross ,
M. Killias ,
U. Hepp ,
S. Haymoz ,
M. Bopp ,
F. Gutzwiller  and
W. Rössler
V. Ajdacic-Gross*
Affiliation:
Research Unit for Clinical and Social Psychiatry, Psychiatric University Hospital, Militärstr. 8, POB 1930, 8021Zürich, Switzerland Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Zurich, Hirschengraben 84, 8001Zürich, Switzerland
M. Killias
Affiliation:
Institute of Criminology, University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 74/39, 8001Zürich, Switzerland
U. Hepp
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Services of the Canton of Aargau, Externer Psychiatrischer Dienst EPD, Haselstrasse 1, 5400Baden, Switzerland
S. Haymoz
Affiliation:
Federal Office of Statistics, Espace de l’Europe 10, 2010Neuchâtel, Switzerland
M. Bopp
Affiliation:
Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Zurich, Hirschengraben 84, 8001Zürich, Switzerland
F. Gutzwiller
Affiliation:
Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Zurich, Hirschengraben 84, 8001Zürich, Switzerland
W. Rössler
Affiliation:
Research Unit for Clinical and Social Psychiatry, Psychiatric University Hospital, Militärstr. 8, POB 1930, 8021Zürich, Switzerland
*
*Corresponding author. Tel.: ++41 44 29 67 433; fax: ++4144 29 67 449. E-mail address: vajdacic@dgsp.uzh.ch (V. Ajdacic-Gross).
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Abstract

This study aimed to examine the association between the availability of firearms at home, and the proportion of firearm suicides in Switzerland in an ecological analysis. The data series were analysed by canton and yielded a fairly high correlation (Spearman's rho = 0.60). Thus, the association holds also at a sub-national level.

Keywords

FirearmsSuicidePrevention
Type
Suicidology
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 25 , Issue 7 , November 2010 , pp. 432 - 434
Copyright
Copyright © Elsevier Masson SAS 2019

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