Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The impact of newspaper reporting of hydrogen sulfide suicide on imitative suicide attempts in Japan

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

An analysis model based on monthly or fortnight data is inadequate to precisely evaluate the impact of media reporting of suicide on suicide rates as well as the time lag from exposure to the report of a suicide. Thus, we used daily time-series data and examined the association between newspaper articles on suicide and suicide attempts in Japan.

Methods

The Box–Jenkins transfer function model was applied to daily time-series data for the period March 27–May 21, 2008.

Results

Newspaper articles on suicide using hydrogen sulfide at (t − 1) were related to suicide attempts at (t) (ps < 0.001 and 0.05). Newspaper articles on suicides using hydrogen sulfide on the front page at (t − 1) were related to suicide attempts at (t) (p < 0.00). The magnitude of the impact of newspaper articles about suicide at (t − 1) or (t − 3) on “copy-cat” suicide attempts became greater as the number of news articles violating the media suicide recommendations increased.

Conclusions

The time lag between exposure to newspaper reports of suicide and attempts was 1 or 3 days, and the magnitude of the impact of front page articles was about four times as great as that of suicide articles in general.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Sisask M, Varnik A (2012) Media roles in suicide prevention: a systematic review. Int J Environ Res Public Health 9:123–138

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Blumental S, Bergner L (1973) Suicide and newspaper: a replicated study. Am J Psychiatry 130:468–477

    Google Scholar 

  3. Gould MS, Saffer D (1986) The impact of suicide in television movies: evidence of imitation. New Engl J Med 315:690–694

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Motto JA (1977) Newspaper influences on suicide. Arch Gen Psychiatry 23:143–148

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Phillips DP (1977) Motor vehicle fatalities increase just after publicized suicide stories. Science 196:1464–1465

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Stack S (1987) Celebrities and suicide: a taxonomy and analysis, 1948–1983. Am Sociol Rev 52:401–412

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Wasserman I (1984) Imitation and suicide: a replication of the Werther effect. Am Sociol Rev 49:427–436

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Cheng ATW, Hawton K, Lee CTC, Chen THH (2007) The influence of media reporting of the suicide of a celebrity on suicide rates: a population-based study. Int J Epidemiol 36:1229–1234

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Pirkis JE, Burgess PM, Francis C, Blood RW, Jolley DJ (2006) The relationship between media reporting of suicide and actual suicide in Australia. Soc Sci Med 62:2874–2886

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Niederkrotenthaler T, Sonneck G (2007) Assessing the impact of media guidelines for reporting on suicides in Austria: interrupted time series analysis. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 41:419–428

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Hagihara A, Miyazaki S, Abe T (2012) Internet suicide searches and the incidence of suicide in young people in Japan. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 262:39–46

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Rajagopal S (2004) Suicide pacts and the Internet. BMJ 329:1298–1299

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Jiji Press Ltd. (2008) The number of suicides by hydrogen sulfide between January and November, 2008 exceeds 1000 (Jiji Press Internet news delivered at 14:34, December 11, 2008). http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20081211-00000099-jij-soci. Accessed 11 Dec 2008

  14. Stack S (1996) The effect of the media on suicide: evidence from Japan, 1955–1985. Suicide Life Threat Behav 26:132–142

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Yoshida K, Mochizuki Y, Fukuyama Y (1989) The effects of media reporting on teenagers’ suicide in Hokkaido, Japan. Nippon Koshu Eisei Zasshi 36:370–374 [in Japanese]

    Google Scholar 

  16. Kurusu E (1992) The effects of mass media upon teenagers’ suicides. Syakai-Seishin-Igaku 15:169–177 [in Japanese]

    Google Scholar 

  17. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute of Mental Health, Office of the Surgeon General, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, American Association of Suicidology, Annenberg Public Policy Center (2010) Recommendations for media coverage of suicide. http://www.sprc.org/library/sreporting.pdf. Accessed 20 Aug 2010

  18. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2010) Suicide contagion and the reporting of suicide: recommendations from a National Workshop. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00031539.htm. Accessed 20 August 2010

  19. Phillip DP, Bollen K (1985) Same time last year: selective data dredging for negative findings. Am Sociol Rev 50:101–116

    Google Scholar 

  20. Hamilton S, Metcalfe C, Gunnell D (2011) Media reporting and suicide: a time-series study of suicde from Clifton Suspension Bridge, UK, 1974-2007. J Public Health 33:511–517

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Chang SS, Page A, Gunnell A (2011) Internet searches for a specific method follow its high-profile media coverage. Am J Psychiatry 168:855–857

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Pirkis J, Burgess P, Blood W, Francis C (2007) The newsworthiness of suicide. Suicide Life Threat Behav 37:278–283

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Etzersdorfer E, Sonneck G (1998) Preventing suicide by influencing mass-media reporting. The Viennese experience 1980-1996. Arch Suicide Res 4:67–74

    Google Scholar 

  24. Niederkrotenthaler T, Voracek M, Herberth A, Till B, Strauss M, Etzersdorfer E, Eisenwort B, Sonneck G (2010) Role of media reports in completed and prevented suicide: werther v. Papageno effects. Br J Psychiatry 197:234–243

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Asahi Shimbun. Three young people meeting for the first time via the Internet and committing suicide as a group using hydrogen sulfide. Asahi Shimbun (Newspaper) (Tokyo Head Officie), Morning Edition (p2), February 18, 2008

  26. Fire and Disaster Management Agency, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2012) On-line document on the prevention of suicide using hydrogen sulfide. http://www8.cao.go.jp/jisatsutaisaku/suisin/k_3/pdf/s1.pdf#search=. Accessed 15 May 2012

  27. Japan Audit Bureau Circulations (2005) Hanki Hanbai-busuu Jikeiretsu Hyou (Table of the numbers for newspaper circulation on a half-year basis). Japan Audit Bureau Circulations, Tokyo

  28. Nikkei Media Marketing Co. Ltd (2005) Nikkei Telecon 21. Nikkei Media Marketing Co. Ltd, Tokyo

  29. Pindyck RS, Rubinfeld DL (1989) Econometric models and econometric forecasts. Irwin/McGraw-Hill, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  30. SAS Institute, Inc. (1993) SAS/ETS user’s guide. SAS Institute Inc, Cary

  31. Yaffee R, McGee M (2000) Introduction to time series analysis and forecasting with applications of SAS and SPSS. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 425–466

    Google Scholar 

  32. Parsons LJ, Schultz RL (1976) Marketing models and econometric research. American Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc., New York, pp 167–188

    Google Scholar 

  33. Chetwynd J, Coope P, Brodie RJ, Wells E (1988) Impact of cigarette advertising on aggregate demand for cigarettes in New Zealand. Brit J Addict 83:409–414

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Radfar M (1985) The effect of advertising on total consumption of cigarettes in the UK. Eur Econ Rev 29:225–231

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Stack S (2003) Media coverage as a risk factor in suicide. J Epidemiol Community Health 57:238–240

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Nakaji S, Parodi S, Fontana V, Umeda T, Suzuki K, Sakamoto J, Fukuda S, Wada S, Sugawara K (2004) Seasonal changes in mortality rates from main causes of death in Japan (1970–1999). Eur J Epidemiol 19:905–913

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Woo JM, Okusaga O, Postolache TT (2012) Seasonality of suicidal behavior. Int J Res Public Health 9:531–547

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Conflict of interest

All authors declared there is no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Services Management and Policy, Kyushu University Graduate School of Medicine, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 812-8582, Japan

    Akihito Hagihara, Takeru Abe & Yoshihiro Nabeshima

  2. Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan

    Takeru Abe

  3. Department of Behavioral and Health Sciences, Exercise and Sport Sciences Course, Graduate School of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University, Kasuga, Fukuoka, Japan

    Megumi Omagari

  4. Department of Kansei Science, Kyushu University Graduate School of Integrated Frontier Sciences, Minami-ku, Fukuoka, Japan

    Midori Motoi

Authors
  1. Akihito Hagihara
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Takeru Abe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Megumi Omagari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Midori Motoi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Yoshihiro Nabeshima
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Akihito Hagihara.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hagihara, A., Abe, T., Omagari, M. et al. The impact of newspaper reporting of hydrogen sulfide suicide on imitative suicide attempts in Japan. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 49, 221–229 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-013-0741-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-013-0741-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation