The 'troubles' in Northern Ireland and suicide

McCann and Stewin (1990) reported that the suicide rate (per 100,000 population) in the USA was positively associated over time with an index of social and political threat. Data on the number of deaths resulting from the civil unrest (The Troubles) in Northern Ireland from 1969 on are available from the CAIN Web Service (cain.ulst.ac.uk). The present analysis examined the association between the suicide rate in Northern Ireland an the number of deaths from civil unrest for the period 1965-1997 using, suicide rates from the World Health Organization (www.who.int). Suicide rates increased during the period (Pearson r =.66, two-tailed p < .01), while deaths from civil unrest peaked in 1972 and did not change linearly over the period (r = -.20). The suicide rate was associated with the number of deaths (r = -.51, p < .01) and in multiple regressions with deaths alone and with deaths and year taken into account (bs = -.009 and -.007, ps <.003 and .003, respectively). Thus, suicide rates were higher when deaths from the civil unrest were lower.