Three series of suicides were examined for evidence of clustering: suicides on the Hong Kong subway (1979–1989), suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge (1999–2009), and suicides in the Wayne County Jail (1967–1992). The inter-suicide intervals were examined for their fit to a random Poisson distribution and found not to differ significantly, indicating that there was no evidence for clustering.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AshtonJ., & DonnanS. (1981). Suicide by burning as an epidemic phenomenon. Psychological Medicine, 11, 735–739.
2.
ChurchI. C., & PhillipsJ. P. (1984). Suggestion and suicide by plastic bag asphyxia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 100–101.
CoxB., & SkeggK. (1993). Contagious suicide in prisons and police cells. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 47, 69–72.
5.
DavisB. R., & HardyR. J. (1986). A suicide epidemic model. Social Biology, 33, 291–300.
6.
DuRandC. J.BurtkaG. J.FedermanE. J.HaycoxJ. A., & SmithJ. W. (1995). A quarter century of suicide in a major urban jail. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 1077–1080.
7.
GaylordM. S., & LesterD. (1994). Suicide in the Hong Kong subway. Social Science & Medicine, 38, 427–430.
8.
GessnerB. D. (1997). Temporal trends and geographic patterns of teen suicide in Alaska, 1979–1993. Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior, 27, 264–273.
9.
GibbonsR. D.ClarkD. C., & FawcettJ. (1990). A statistical method for evaluating suicide clusters and implementing cluster surveillance. American Journal of Epidemiology, 132, S183–S191.
10.
GouldM. S.PetrieK.KleinmanM. H., & WallensteinS. (1994). Clustering of attempted suicide. International Journal of Epidemiology, 23, 1185–1189.
11.
GouldM. S.WallensteinS.KleinmanM.O'CarrollP., & MercyJ. (1990). Suicide clusters. American Journal of Public Health, 80, 211–212.
12.
GouldM. S.WallensteinS., & KleinmanM. (1990). Time-space clustering of teenage suicide. American Journal of Epidemiology, 131, 71–78.
13.
HankoffL. (1961). An epidemic of attempted suicide. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 2, 294–298.
14.
HankoffL. (1979). The armed forces. In HankoffL. & EinsidlerB. (Eds.), Suicide (pp. 343–349). Littleton, MA: PSG.
15.
HawC. M. (1994). A cluster of suicides at a London psychiatric unit. Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior, 24, 256–266.
16.
HumphryD. (1991). Final exit.Eugene, OR: Hemlock Society.
LesterD. (1987). A subcultural theory of teenage suicide. Adolescence, 22, 317–320.
25.
LesterD. (1996). An encyclopedia of famous suicides.Commack, NY: Nova Science.
26.
LesterD. (2008). Exit weeping: Understanding suicide through the study of famous suicides.Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science.
27.
MarzukP. M.TarfiffK., & LeonA. C. (1994). Increase in fatal suicidal poisonings and suffocations in the year Final Exit was published. American Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 1813–1814.
28.
ModestinJ., & WurmleO. (1989). Role of modeling in inpatient suicide. British Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 511–514.
29.
NiemiT. (1975). The time-space distance of suicides committed in the lock-up in Finland in 1963–1967. Psychiatria Fennica, 1975, 267–270.
30.
NowersM., & GunnellD. (1996). Suicide from the Clifton Suspension Bridge in England. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 50, 30–32.
31.
SeidenR. H. (1968). Suicide behavior contagion on a college campus. In FarberowN. L. (Ed.), Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Suicide Prevention (pp. 360–367). Los Angeles, CA: Delmar.
32.
StackS. (2005). Suicide in the media. Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior, 35, 121–133.
33.
SveenC. A., & WalbyF. A. (2008). Suicide survivors' mental health and grief reactions. Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior, 38, 13–29.
34.
SwiftE. M. (2006, January 9). What went wrong in Winthrop?Sports Illustrated, 104(1), 60–65.
35.
TaiminenT. J., & HeleniusH. (1994). Suicide clustering in a psychiatric hospital with a history of a suicide epidemic. American Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 1987–1088.
36.
TowerM. (1989). A suicide epidemic in an American Indian community. American Indian & Alaskan Native Mental Health Research, 3(1), 34–44.
37.
YehC., & LesterD. (2010). Suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge. Psychological Reports, 107, 491–492.
38.
ZemishlanyZ.WeinbergerA.Ben-BassatM., & MellH. (1987). An epidemic of suicide attempts by burning in a psychiatric hospital. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 704–706.
