Summary
During recent years, two nationwide crossectional domestic surveys on psychosocial issues and health status were carried out in Greece. Both studies were conducted with identical methodology (personal interview) and screening instruments, with probability samples of 4083 adults aged 20–64 years (study A) and 3708 respondents of the same age range (study B). The time interval between the first and the second study was 6 years. The presence of self-reported suicidal behavior during the last month prior to the interview was examined. In study A, 2.8% of males and 6.8% of females respondents reported a recent suicide ideation compared to 6.4% of the males and 14.9% of the female suicide ideators in study B.
However, only 0.27% of the males and 1.10% of the females in study A attempted suicide. These proportions were doubled in study B. The prevalence of depressive symptoms on the Center of Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale was high among the respondents reporting a previous suicide ideation and suicide attempts.
Discriminant analysis revealed several social and psychiatric factors predicting suicidal behavior.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bazas T, Jemos J, Stefanis C, Trichopoulos D (1979) Incidence and seasonal variation of suicide mortality in Greece. Compr Psychiatry 20:15–20
Beck AT (1967) Depression. Harper and Row, New York
Beck A, Davis J (1973) Classification and nomenclature. In: Resnik HL, Hathorne B (eds) Suicide prevention in 70's. N.I.M.H.-C.S.S.P. Rockville, Md
Bell R, LeRoy J, Lin E, Schwab J (1981) Change and psychopathology Epidemiologic considerations. Community Ment-Health J 17:203–213
Beratis S (1986) Suicide in southwestern Greece 1979–1984, Acta Psychiatr Scand 74:433–439
Beskow J (1989) Completed suicides by patients in medical services. In: Cooper B, Helgason T (eds) Epidemiology and the prevention of mental disorders. Routledge London, pp 290–305
Blazer D, George LK, Landerman R, Pennybacker M, Melville ML, Woodbury M, Manton KG, Jordan K, Locke B (1985) Psychiatric disorders. A rural/urban comparison. Arch Gen Psychiatry 42:651–665
Boyd J, Weissman MM (1981) Epidemiology of affective disorders. Arch Gen Psychiatry 38:1039–1046
Bronish T, Hecht H (1988) Sociopsychological adjustment and family history of depressives with and without a suicide attempt. In: Moller HJ, Schmidtke A, Welz R (eds) Current issues of Suicidology. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 130–136
Catalano R, Dooley CD (1977) Economic predictors of depressed mood and stressful life events. J Health Soc Behav 18:292–307
Dimitriou EC, Ierodiaconou I, Hahamidou E, Minas A (1986) Attempted suicide in Thessaloniki, Greece. Med J Soc Psychiatry 7:151–158
Dohrenwend BP, Dohrenwend BS, Schwartz M, Gould B, Link B, Neugebauer R, Wunsch-Hitzing R (1980) Mental illness in the United States. Praeger, New York
Dooley DR, Catalano RA, Jackson RL, Brownwell A (1981) Economic life and symptom changes in an non-metropolitan community. J Health Soc Behav 22:144–154
Durkheim E (1951) Suicide: A study in Sociology (transl. Spaulding JA and Simpson G) Free Press, New York
Fleiss J (1973) Statistical methods for proportions and rates. Wiley, New York
Gove WR (1972) Sex marital status and suicide. J Health Soc Behav 13:204–213
Hagnell O, Lanke J, Rorsman B (1981) Suicide rates in the Lundby study: Mental illness as a risk factor for suicide. Neuropsychobiology 7:248–253
Hagnell O, Lanke J, Rorsman B (1982) Sicide and depression in the male part of the Lundby study. Changes over time during a 25-year observation period. Neuropsychobiology 8:182–187
Hansen W, Wang A (1984) Suicide attempts in a Danish region. Soc Psychiatry 19:197–201
Kaplan HB and Pokorny AD (1976) Self-derogation and suicide: self-derogation as an antecedent of suicidal responses. Soc Sci Med 10:113–118
Kessler R, McRae J (1983) Trends in the relationship between sex and attempted suicide. J Health Soc Behav 24:98–110
Kish L (1965) Survey sampling. Wiley, New York
Korczak D (1988) Estimation of suicidal behavior in representative epidemiologic studies. In: Moller HJ, Schmidtke A, Welz R (eds) Current Issues of Suicidology. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York 27–32
Kreitman N (1988) Suicide, age and marital status. Psychol Med 18:121–128
Langner T (1963) A twenty-two-item screening score of psychiatric symptoms indicating impairment. J Health Hum Beh 13:269–276
Link B, Dohrenwend B (1980) Formulation of hypotheses about the true prevalence of demoralization in the United States. In: Dohrenwend BP, Dohrenwend BS, Schwartz M, Gould B, Link B, Neugebauer R, Wunsch-Hitzing R (eds) Mental illness in the United States. Praeger, New York, 112–129
Madianos M (1984) Acculturation and mental health of Greek immigrants in USA. In: Hudolin V (ed) Social Psychiatry. Plenum, New York, 549–557
Madianos M, Madianou D, Vlachonikolis J, Stefanis C (1985a) A discriminant analysis predicting suicidal behavior in a general population of Athens. Regional Symposium of the WPA on Affective Disorders Athens. Book of Abstracts, p 59. DPUA, Athens
Madianos M, Vlachonikolis J, Madianou D, Stefanis C (1985b) Prevalence of psychological disorders in Athens area: prediction of causal factors. Acta Psychiatr Scand 71:479–487
Madianos M, Madianou D, Stefanis C (1987a) Prevalence of psychosomatic illness in Greece: Two nation-wide cross-sectional studies in 1978 and 1984. In: Christodoulou G (ed) Psychosomatic Medicine: Past and Future, Plenum Press, New York, 173–178
Madianos M, Stefanis C, Madianou D (1987b) Prevalence of mental disorders and utilization of mental health services in two areas of Greater Athens. In: Cooper B (ed) Psychiatric Epidemiology: progress and prospects. Croom Helm, London, 372–386
Madianos M, Zarnari O (1988) Health and the Greek society, an empirical study. Athens, National Center for Social Research, (in Greek)
Madianos M, Stefanis C (1992) Changes in the prevalence of symptoms of depression and depression across Greece. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 27:211–219
Murphy GE, Werzel RD (1980) Suicide by birth cohort in the United States, 1949 to 1974. Arch Gen Psychiatry 37:519–523
Norussis M (1986) Advanced statistics S.P.S.S.X. S.P.S.S. Inc., Chicago
Pallis DJ, Barraclough BM, Levey AB, Jenkins JS, Sainsbury P (1982) Estimating suicide risk among attempted suicide. Br J Psychiatry 141:37–44
Paykel ES, Myers JK, Lindenthal JJ, Tanner J (1974) Suicidal feelings in the general population: a prevalence study. Br J Psychiatry 124:460–469
Platt S (1988) Suicide trends in 24 European countries (1972–1984). In: Moller HJ, Schmidtke A, Welz R (eds) Current Issues in Suicidology. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 3–13
Platt S (1984) Unemployment and suicidal behavior: review of the literature. Soc Sci Med 19:93–115
Radloff LS (1977) The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Appl Psychol Meas 1:385–401
Sainsbury P, Jenkins J, Levey A (1980) The social correlates of suicide in Europe. In: Farmer R and Hirsh S (eds) The Suicide Syndrome. Croom Helm, London, 55–66
Schmidtke A, Hafner H (1988) The Werther effect after television films: new evidence for an old hypothesis. Psychol Med 18: 665–676
Statistical Yearbooks of Greece 1979–1986. National Printing House, Athens
Stengel E (1980) Suicide and attempted suicide. Penguin, Harmondsworth
Weissman MM (1974) The epidemiology of suicide attempts 1960 to 1971. Arch Gen Psychiatry 30:737–746
Weissman MM, Klerman GL (1977) Sex differences and the epidemiology of depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry 34:98–112
Vogel R, Wolfersdorf MG (1988) Estimating suicide risk among inpatients treated for depressive disorders. In: Moller HJ, Schmidtke A, Welz R (eds) Current issues of Suicidology. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 182–188
Yang B (1992) The economy of suicide. Am J Econ Sociol 51:87–99
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Department of Anthropology and Social Policy Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Madianos, M.G., Madianou-Gefou, D. & Stefanis, C.N. Changes in suicidal behavior among nation-wide general population samples across Greece. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Nuerosci 243, 171–178 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02190724
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02190724