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The high rate of suicide in older white men: A study testing ten hypotheses

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Summary

A persistent finding in the epidemiology of suicide is the high rate in older white men in the U. S. A. The relationship of beliefs and behaviors to suicidal thoughts and attempts in 104 lower-class male psychiatric and medical patients, composed equally of blacks and whites, in the age range of high risk (45 to 64) was investigated, drawing upon ten hypotheses about suicide from sociological and neuropsychiatrie literature. Variables found associated with suicidal thoughts or acts in both black and white patients were then explored in a group of normal black and white males of the same ages and social class. When the hypothesized behaviors or attitudes were more frequent both in suicidal patients of both races and in the general sample of whites, we considered the hypothesis supported as a possible explanation for the excess suicides in older white men. Six variables were found both to describe suicidal as compared with non-suicidal patients and to distinguish normal white men as compared with black.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

    Lee N. Robins, Patricia A. West & George E. Murphy

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  1. Lee N. Robins
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  2. Patricia A. West
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  3. George E. Murphy
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Additional information

This paper was supported by U. S. P. H. S. Grant MH 18864, U. S. P. H. S. Grant MH 13002, and Research Scientist Award DA 00013. The authors gratefully acknowledge the thoughtful comments on an earlier version by the MRC Unit for Epidemiological Studies in Psychiatry, University Department of Psychiatry, Edinburgh.

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Robins, L.N., West, P.A. & Murphy, G.E. The high rate of suicide in older white men: A study testing ten hypotheses. Soc Psychiatry 12, 1–20 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00578977

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00578977

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