On March our reading suggestion was about a recent article by our member Christina van der Feltz-Cornelis on “Frontiers in Psychiatry”:

“Springtime Peaks and Christmas Troughs: A National Longitudinal Population-Based Study into Suicide Incidence Time Trends in the Netherlands”
Emma Hofstra, Iman Elfeddali, Marjan Bakker, Jacobus J. de Jong, Chijs van Nieuwenhuizen and Christina M. van der Feltz-Cornelis

Here her comment about it:

“Time trends are one of the most studied phenomena in suicide research; however, evidence for time trends in the Dutch population remains understudied. Insight into time trends can contribute to the development of effective suicide prevention strategies.

Therefore, we examined time trends in national daily and monthly data of 33,224 suicide events that occurred in the Netherlands from 1995 to 2015, as well as the influence of age, gender, and province, in a longitudinal population-based design with Poisson regression analyses and Bayesian change point analyses.

We found that suicide incidence among Dutch residents increased from 2007 until 2015 by 38%. Suicide rates peak in spring, up to 8% higher than in summer (p < 0.001). Suicide incidence was 42% lower at Christmas, compared to the December-average (IRR = 0.580, p < 0.001). After Christmas, a substantial increase occurred on January 1, which remained high during the first weeks of the new year. We also found effects by gender, age and province of residence, however, no differential effects were found for gender, age and province of residence in both season and Christmas with regards to suicide incidence.

It is recommended to plan (mental) health care services to be available especially at high-risk moments, at spring time, and in the beginning of January. Further research is needed to explore the protective effect of Christmas in suicide incidence”.

You can find it on Frontiers in Psychiatry: click HERE

Image From Pixabay

Looking forward to sharing with you
the next scientific news and reading suggestions!

To know more, contact EPA- SSSP e-mail address:
epasectionsuicidology@gmail.com

Thanks to Christina M. van der Feltz-Cornelis