Suicide peak ahead

April 22, 2009
ST.com News: Suicide peak ahead

IF THE downturn deepens, Singapore should brace itself for a rise in suicides. And it should do all it can to prevent the increase from starting now, warns Dr Chia Boon Hock.

Singapore's resident suicidologist, who has spent 40 years collecting and studying suicide data, says there have been four major suicide peaks here over the past 100 years.

Notably, three of these happened just after major recessions, when financial woes and unemployment took their toll. The other came in wartime.

The first was during the 1906 to 1910 Bankers' Panic financial crisis, which saw the suicide rate surge 71 per cent to 11.3 per 100,000 people.

The second peak was in the aftermath of the Great Depression, from 1936 to 1940, when the toll swelled to 15.8 per 100,000 people. ...

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