Switching Suicide Methods in Order to Achieve Lethality: A Study of Greek Suicide Victims

Abstract

This article focused on the relation between the method of last attempted suicide and the method used during the subsequent completed suicide. Using the method of psychological autopsy, the authors studied all suicide cases from the Athens Greater Area during a 2-year period. Twenty-four percent of the victims had history of previous suicide attempts. The majority of the suicide attempters switched to a different method (p < 0.001) for their final act. This difference is primarily due to the individuals who had chosen self-poisoning or wrist cutting in their last attempted suicide. Both of these groups switched to hanging or jumping from a height for their final attempt. Individuals who attempted suicide by hanging or jumping became completers using mainly the same methods.

Acknowledgments

We are deeply grateful to the staff of the Athens Department of Forensic Medicine—in particular Mrs. Maria Terzi and Natassa Apostolopoulou (secretary support) as well as to Dimitris Manifavas (mortuary staff)—for their valuable assistance in data collection.

Notes

p < 0.05.

p < 0.05.

Note: Forty-four victims (74.6%) changed methods (χ² = 6.42, p = 0.016). The difference is due to the switch by individuals with last attempt by self-poisoning (χ² = 27.12, p < 0.001, odds ratio: 13.29, 95% confidence interval: 2.6–67.4) or wrist-cutting (χ² = 11.8, p = 0.001, odds ratio: 3.4, 95% confidence interval: 1.6–7.1).