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The role of unemployment in parasuicide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

S. C. Jones ,
D. P. Forster  and
F. Hassanyeh
S. C. Jones
Affiliation:
From the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Department of Psychiatry, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
D. P. Forster*
Affiliation:
From the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Department of Psychiatry, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
F. Hassanyeh
Affiliation:
From the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Department of Psychiatry, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr D. P. Forster, Department of Family and Community Medicine, The University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE2 4HH.
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Synopsis

Sixty-four in-patient cases of deliberate non-fatal self-poisoning were compared for psychosocial problems in a case-control study with a similar number of individually matched community controls. A strongly significant association was found between unemployment and self-poisoning. Further analysis revealed no firm evidence to support the hypotheses that unemployment was causally related to self-poisoning in an indirect manner or that it increased the vulnerability of individuals who self-poison to other stressful life events and difficulties. It is concluded that a possible explanation is that some third factor independently increases the risk of both unemployment and self-poisoning, giving rise to a non-causal relationship between these last two variables.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , February 1991 , pp. 169 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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