Open access What are reasons for the large gender differences in the lethality of suicidal acts? An epidemiological analysis in four European countries

Roland Mergl, Nicole Koburger, Katherina Heinrichs, András Székely, Mónika Ditta Tóth, James Coyne, Sónia Quintão, Ella Arensman, Claire Coffey, Margaret Maxwell, Airi Värnik, Chantal van Audenhove, David McDaid, Marco Sarchiapone, Armin Schmidtke, Axel Genz, Ricardo Gusmão, Ulrich Hegerl (2015)

Please note: this is a legacy publication from CPEC (formely PSSRU at LSE).

PLoS One

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129062

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0129062

Available online: 6 July 2015

Abstract
In Europe, men have lower rates of attempted suicide compared to women and at the same time a higher rate of completed suicides, indicating major gender differences in lethality of suicidal behaviour. The aim of this study was to analyse the extent to which these gender differences in lethality can be explained by factors such as choice of more lethal methods or lethality differences within the same suicide method or age. In addition, we explored gender differences in the intentionality of suicide attempts.