Hanging 'now the most common form of suicide'

Hanging has replaced poisoning with car exhaust fumes as the most common form of suicide among young men.

Hanging has replaced poisoning with car exhaust fumes as the most common form of suicide among young men.

Cleaner cars ­ which are fitted with catalytic converters to reduce carbon monoxide emissions ­ have made self-poisoning more difficult, a study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry says today. Instead there has been a "substantial increase" in suicide by hanging, strangulation and suffocation among youths, Dr Mike McClure, a psychiatrist from Imperial College School of Medicine in London, reports.

He analysed the methods of death chosen by suicidal teenagers in an attempt to explain why suicide rates among young men continue to rise, despite recent decreases in other age groups and a far lower likelihood in teenage girls. The suicide rate among males aged 15 to 19 increased by 72 per cent between 1970 and 1990 and remained at an "alarmingly high" level during the 1990s, Dr McClure says. The most recent figures, for 1998, show there were 146 suicides in this age group.

In the 1970s, overdosing on tablets or drugs was the most common form of suicide. During the 1980s and early 1990s, a high proportion of suicidal youths chose to "gas" themselves in cars ­ a method that usually resulted in loss of consciousness in a few minutes and death within half an hour.

But the introduction of catalytic converters, which cut carbon dioxide emissions by 90 per cent, made this much more difficult. In one of many failed attempts, a man survived inhaling fumes for five hours.

One consequence of cleaner emissions was a temporary decrease in the male suicide rate in the mid-1990s. This echoed the impact of natural North Sea gas in the 1960s, when it replaced town gas and drastically reduced the ability of people to kill themselves by leaving on the gas in the kitchen.

But hanging and strangulation soon became a substitute. That method now accounts for 63 per cent of suicides among young men. "These three phases can be described as epidemics of suicide, first by overdosing, then by poisoning with vehicle exhaust gas and currently by hanging ­ the latter two principally affecting older male adolescents," Dr McClure says.

The reasons young men are more prone than young women to take their own lives are still not clear. Although rates of depression and mental disorders have increased, they do not account fully for the upsurge, Dr McClure says.

There is a strong link with alcohol and drug abuse, with research showing that the increased suicide rate among young men up to the 1990s coincided with much greater drinking and drug use among young people. Other factors include social exclusion, with higher suicide rates among unemployed youths and older teenage boys from disrupted family backgrounds.

Dr McClure suggests that although "psychosocial stress" affects both sexes, women may have higher self-esteem, better coping strategies and the ability to communicate with friends, while young men may feel unable to live up to expectations or cope with modern life.

Dr McClure believes the increased risk among youths up to the mid-1990s is in part explained by easy access to carbon monoxide poisoning.

But he adds: "The fact that suicide in males has remained high, due to an increase in hanging, indicates that the increase was not entirely due to availability of a new method, but was probably also related to increased psychological stress."

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