Abstract
Background: Understanding what distinguishes the suicide of individuals reported missing (missing-suicides) from those of individuals not reported missing (other-suicides) may have preventative and/or operational utility and inform our knowledge of suicide.
Aims: To assess whether specific epidemiological, sociodemographic or circumstantial characteristics differ between individuals reported missing and those not reported missing who take their own life.
Method: Content analysis of Scottish Police Death Reports, detailing 160 suicides/undetermined deaths over a 3-year period in the North-East of Scotland.
Results:Those in the missing-suicide group were more likely to be older but did not differ from the other-suicide group on any other epidemiological or sociodemographic characteristics. Individuals in the other-suicide group were more likely to be found inadvertently by people known to them. The missing-suicide group took longer to find and were more likely to be located in natural outdoor locations by police/searchers or members of the public.
Conclusions: Individuals who die by suicide and who are reported as a missing person differ from those not reported as missing in terms of factors relating to location and how they are found but not epidemiological or sociodemographic characteristics.
Aims: To assess whether specific epidemiological, sociodemographic or circumstantial characteristics differ between individuals reported missing and those not reported missing who take their own life.
Method: Content analysis of Scottish Police Death Reports, detailing 160 suicides/undetermined deaths over a 3-year period in the North-East of Scotland.
Results:Those in the missing-suicide group were more likely to be older but did not differ from the other-suicide group on any other epidemiological or sociodemographic characteristics. Individuals in the other-suicide group were more likely to be found inadvertently by people known to them. The missing-suicide group took longer to find and were more likely to be located in natural outdoor locations by police/searchers or members of the public.
Conclusions: Individuals who die by suicide and who are reported as a missing person differ from those not reported as missing in terms of factors relating to location and how they are found but not epidemiological or sociodemographic characteristics.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e16 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | BJPsych Open |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 29 Jan 2019 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 29 Jan 2019 |
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Woolnough, P., Magar, E., & Gibb, G. (2019). Distinguishing suicides of persons reported missing from those not reported missing: a retrospective Scottish cohort study. BJPsych Open, 5(1), [e16]. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2018.82