Number of Finnish suicides down by a third in past decade

Baltic States and Russia produce alarming figures

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In the course of the last ten years, the number of Finnish people committing suicide has declined by roughly a third. In 2002, there were 1,093 registered deaths by suicide, while in the early 1990s the annual figure ran at around 1,500.
      According to Professor Jouko Lönnqvist of the Department for Mental Health and Alcohol Research at the National Public Health Institute, one significant factor behind the reduced figures is the improved situation for depression patients. These days roughly one in two sufferers from depression gets suitable treatment for the ailment, whereas ten years ago the figure could be only one in five.
     
Male suicides outnumber females by a factor of around three to one (822 to 271). The most typical suicide victim is a middle-aged man.
      Attempted suicides, on the other hand, are most prevalent amongst young Finnish adults. Another detail is that on the worldwide scale at least, women account for the larger part of the 10-20 million attempted suicides each year.
      The suicide rate per 100,000 of population has fallen in Finland to 21.0 in 2002 from a high in 1990 of 30.3. The male rate is 32.3, and that for women is just over 10/100,000.
     
Finland remains at the higher end of the scale in terms of suicides: recent figures released by the World Health Organisation suggest a strong clustering of high rates among the Baltic States and in Russia and the former Soviet republics, as well as in Eastern Europe generally.
      Lithuania, for example, posts a figure of 44.7/100,000 and figures for the Russian Federation and Ukraine in particular fall not far short of this level. The rate for Lithuanian males is a shocking 80.7, and all the numbers are heading sharply upwards from 1990 totals.
      Finland has a higher incidence of suicides than its Nordic neighbours, though the gap has narrowed somewhat. Estonia also had an elevated level of 27.3 in 2002, but again the numbers are well down on the mid-1990s.
     
Today, Friday, is World Suicide Prevention Day. Suicides currently account for more than half of all violent deaths and result in almost one million fatalities each year.


Links:
  World Health Organisation: Suicide Prevention
  International Association for Suicide Prevention

Helsingin Sanomat