A clinical and social enquiry into the suicide pact
A clinical and social enquiry into the suicide pact
Suicide pacts attract much media interest but have received scant attention in research literature. In 1961, Cohen reported on 58 pacts occurring between 1955-58 in England and Wales.
This study aimed to update Cohen's findings and examine those aspects previously poorly researched. The method for finding pacts was developed using death entry data provided by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys together with death certificates.
The method located 62 pacts and seven probable pacts in the five year period 1988-92. Illness was common in one or both members of each pact, and provided the main motivation for the pacts. Depression predominated with less evidence of enduring mental disorder such as manic depression, schizophrenia and alcohol dependence. The nature of the relationship was important in explaining why the two people chose to die together. Often the relationships were particularly close, and the second partner who often had less severe illness than the first chose to die with them rather than being left alone. Compared with the characteristics of single suicide, those involved in pacts were more likely to be married, older, female and of higher social class.
This study confirms many of the findings of Cohen's 1961 study. Suicide pacts remain rare causes of death and account for less than 1% of all suicides. Contrary to other smaller studies, this enquiry demonstrates that mental disorder is common in suicide pacts, particularly when the pair is considered as a unit. Significant medical disorder is as common in suicide pacts as in single suicide, though deaths involving advanced carcinomatosis and resembling euthanasia appear particular to suicide pacts.
However, the main method employed is carbon monoxide car exhaust poisoning, and attempts to detoxify car exhausts may result in the coincidental reduction in deaths by suicide pacts over the next twenty years, though probably some substitution of methods would occur.
University of Southampton
Brown, M.T
735fa6c3-20c7-4732-8b20-e028cec2a5e4
1998
Brown, M.T
735fa6c3-20c7-4732-8b20-e028cec2a5e4
Brown, M.T
(1998)
A clinical and social enquiry into the suicide pact.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
Suicide pacts attract much media interest but have received scant attention in research literature. In 1961, Cohen reported on 58 pacts occurring between 1955-58 in England and Wales.
This study aimed to update Cohen's findings and examine those aspects previously poorly researched. The method for finding pacts was developed using death entry data provided by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys together with death certificates.
The method located 62 pacts and seven probable pacts in the five year period 1988-92. Illness was common in one or both members of each pact, and provided the main motivation for the pacts. Depression predominated with less evidence of enduring mental disorder such as manic depression, schizophrenia and alcohol dependence. The nature of the relationship was important in explaining why the two people chose to die together. Often the relationships were particularly close, and the second partner who often had less severe illness than the first chose to die with them rather than being left alone. Compared with the characteristics of single suicide, those involved in pacts were more likely to be married, older, female and of higher social class.
This study confirms many of the findings of Cohen's 1961 study. Suicide pacts remain rare causes of death and account for less than 1% of all suicides. Contrary to other smaller studies, this enquiry demonstrates that mental disorder is common in suicide pacts, particularly when the pair is considered as a unit. Significant medical disorder is as common in suicide pacts as in single suicide, though deaths involving advanced carcinomatosis and resembling euthanasia appear particular to suicide pacts.
However, the main method employed is carbon monoxide car exhaust poisoning, and attempts to detoxify car exhausts may result in the coincidental reduction in deaths by suicide pacts over the next twenty years, though probably some substitution of methods would occur.
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Published date: 1998
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Local EPrints ID: 463581
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/463581
PURE UUID: 046343cc-4169-4ce7-aa23-9cd9b416d144
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 20:54
Last modified: 23 Jul 2022 02:15
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Author:
M.T Brown
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