Asuicide method is any means by which a person may choose toend their life.Suicide attempts do not always result in death, and a non-fatal suicide attempt can leave the person with serious physical injuries, long-term health problems, orbrain damage.[1]
Worldwide, three suicide methods predominate, with the pattern varying in different countries: these arehanging,pesticides, andfirearms.[2] Some suicides may bepreventable by removing the means.[3] Making common suicide methodsless accessible leads to an overall reduction in the number of suicides.[4][5]
Method-specific ways to do this might include restricting access to pesticides, firearms, and commonly used drugs. Other important measures are the introduction of policies that address themisuse of alcohol and the treatment ofmental disorders.[6]Gun-control measures in a number of countries have seen a reduction in suicides and other gun-related deaths.[7] Other preventive measures are not method-specific; these include support, access to treatment, and calling acrisis hotline.[8] There are multipletalk therapies that reduce suicidal thoughts and behaviors regardless of method, includingdialectical behavior therapy (DBT).[9][10]
Thestudy of suicide methods aims to identify those commonly used, and the groups at risk of suicide; making methods less accessible may be useful insuicide prevention.[4][3][11] Limiting the availability of means such aspesticides andfirearms is recommended by aWorld Health Report on suicide and its prevention. The early identification ofmental disorders andsubstance abuse disorders, follow-up care for those who have attempted suicide, and responsible reporting by the media are all seen to be key in reducing the number of deaths by suicide.[12] National suicide prevention strategies are also advocated using a comprehensive and coordinated response to suicide prevention. This needs to include the registration and monitoring of suicides and attempted suicide, breaking figures down by age,sex, and method.[12]
Such information allows public health resources to focus on the problems that are relevant in a particular place, or for a given population or subpopulation.[13] For instance, if firearms are used in a significant number of suicides in one place, then public health policies there could focus ongun safety, such as keeping guns locked away, and the key inaccessible toat-risk family members. If young people are found to be at increased risk of suicide by overdosing on particular medications, then an alternative class of medication may be prescribed instead, a safety plan and monitoring of medication can be put in place, and parents can be educated about how to prevent the hoarding of medication for a future suicide attempt.[11]
Media reporting of the methods used in any given suicide is "strongly discouraged" by theWorld Health Organization, government health agencies, universities, and theAssociated Press among others.[14] Detailed descriptions of suicides or the personal characteristics of the person who died contribute to copycat suicides (suicide contagion).[15][16] Dramatic or inappropriate descriptions of individual suicides bymass media has been linked specifically to copycat suicides among teenagers.[16] Writing for theNew Yorker about celebrity suicides,Andrew Solomon wrote that "You who are reading this are at statistically increased risk of suicide right now."[17] In one study, changes in how news outlets reported suicide reduced suicides by a particular method.[16]
Media reporting guidelines also apply to "online content including citizen-generated media coverage". The Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide, created by journalists, suicide prevention groups, andinternet safety non-profit organizations, encourage linking to resources such as alist of suicide crisis lines and information aboutrisk factors for suicide, and reporting on suicide as a multi-faceted, treatable health issue.[18]
Method restriction, also calledlethal means reduction, is an effective way to reduce the number of suicide deaths in the short and medium term.[19] Method restriction is considered abest practice supported by "compelling"evidence.[16] Some of these actions, such as installing barriers on bridges and reducing the toxicity in gas, require action by governments, industries, orpublic utilities. At the individual level, method restriction can be as simple as asking a trusted friend or family member to store firearms until the crisis has passed.[20][21] According toDanuta Wasserman, professor inpsychiatry andsuicidology atKarolinska Institute, choosing not to restrict access to suicide methods isunethical.[16]
Method restriction is effective and prevents suicides.[16] It has the largest effect on overall suicide rates when the method being restricted is common and no direct substitution is available.[16] If the method being restricted is uncommon, or if a substitute is readily available, then it may be effective in individual cases but not produce a large-scale reduction in the number of deaths in a country.[16]
Method substitution is the process of choosing a different suicide method when the first-choice method is inaccessible.[3] In many cases, when the first-choice method is restricted, the person does not attempt to find a substitute.[16] Method substitution has been measured over the course of decades, so when acommon method is restricted (for example, by making domestic gas less toxic), overall suicide rates may be suppressed for many years.[3][16] If the first-choice suicide method is inaccessible, a method substitution may be made which may be less lethal, tending to result in fewer fatal suicide attempts.[3]
In an example of thecurb cut effect, changes unrelated to suicide have also functioned as suicide method restrictions.[16] Examples of this include changes to align train doors with platforms, switching fromcoal gas tonatural gas in homes, andgun control laws, all of which have reduced suicides despite being intended for a different purpose.[16]
Suffocation, as a classification of suicide method, includesstrangulation andhanging.[22][23]
Suicide by suffocation involves restricting breathing or the amount of oxygen taken in, causingasphyxia and eventuallyhypoxia. It is not possible to die simply by holding the breath, since areflex causes therespiratory muscles to contract, forcing an in-breath, and the re-establishment of a normal breathing rhythm.[24] Therefore, inhaling aninert gas such ashelium ornitrogen, or a toxic gas such ascarbon monoxide, is used to bring aboutunconsciousness.[25][26] Certain devices such asexit bags are designed to be used with this method, and provide a way for the carbon dioxide to passively escape, which prevents the panic, sense ofsuffocation and struggling beforeunconsciousness, known as thehypercapnic alarm response caused by the presence of highcarbon dioxide concentrations in the blood.[27] As of 2010[update], organizations supporting aright to die promoted death by helium inhalation, although most cases using this method in the US were people with psychiatric conditions.[28]
Hanging is a common method of suicide.[23][22] Hanging involves the use of aligature such as a rope or cord attached to an anchor point with the other end used to form anoose placed around the neck. The cause of death will either be due to strangulation or abroken neck. About half of attemptedsuicides by hanging result in death.[29] People who favor this method are usually unaware that it is often a "slow, painful, and messy method that [needs] technical knowledge".[30]
Hanging is the prevalent means of suicide in impoverishedpre-industrial societies, and is more common inrural areas than inurban areas.[31]
Hanging was the most common method intraditional Chinese culture,[32] as it was believed that the rage involved in such a death permitted the person'sspirit to haunt and torment survivors.[33][34] In the Chinese culture, suicide by hanging was used as an act of revenge by women[35] and of defiance by powerless officials, who used it as a "final, but unequivocal, way of standing still against and above oppressive authorities".[32] Chinese people would oftenapproach the act ceremonially, including the use of proper attire.[32]
Suicide by drowning is the act of deliberately submerging oneself in water or other liquid to preventbreathing. It accounts for less than 2% of all suicides in the United States.[36] People withdementia andschizophrenia have a higher risk of dying by drowning.[37] Of those who attempt suicide by drowning in the US, about half die.[29]
About 2% to 3% of suicides by drowning involvedriving a vehicle into a body of water.[38]
Suicide bypoisoning, also calledself-poisoning, is usually classed as adrug overdose when drugs such as painkillers or recreational drugs are used. The use ofpesticides to self-poison is the most common method used in some countries.[2] Poisoning through the means oftoxic plants is usually slow and painful.[39][40]
As of 2006[update], worldwide, around 30% of suicides were frompesticide poisonings.[42] It was the leading suicide method indeveloping countries,[43] with about half of suicide deaths in India involving poisoning, and most of those involving pesticides.[44] The use of this method varies markedly in different areas of the world, from 0.9% in Europe to about 50% in the Pacific region.[41] In the US, pesticide poisoning is used in about 12 suicides per year.[45] The overallcase fatality rate for suicide attempts using pesticide is about 10–20%;[46] the risk of death increases if the person is alsodrunk at the time.[47]
Method restriction is an effective way to reduce suicide by pesticide poisoning.[48] In Finland, limiting access toparathion in the 1960s resulted in a rapid decline in both poisoning-related suicides and total suicide deaths for several years, and a slower decline in subsequent years.[49] InSri Lanka, both suicide by pesticide and total suicides declined after firsttoxicity class I and laterclass IIendosulfan were banned.[50] Overall suicide deaths were cut by 70%, with 93,000 lives saved over 20 years as a result of banning these pesticides.[2] In Korea, banning a single pesticide,paraquat, halved the number of suicides by pesticide poisoning[2] and reduced the total number of suicides in that country.[49]
Adrug overdose involves taking a dose of adrug that exceeds safe levels. In the UK (England and Wales) until 2013, a drug overdose was the most common suicide method in females.[51] In 2019 in males the percentage is 16%. Self-poisoning accounts for the highest number of non-fatal suicide attempts. In the United States about 60% of suicide attempts and 14% of suicide deaths involve drug overdoses.[29] The risk of death in suicide attempts involving overdose is about 2%.[29][verification needed]
Overdose attempts usingpainkillers are among the most common, due to their easy availability over-the-counter.[52]Paracetamol (also called acetaminophen) is the most widely used analgesic worldwide and is commonly used in overdose attempts.[53]Paracetamol poisoning is a common cause ofacute liver failure.[54][53] If not treated, the overdose produces a long and painful illness, with symptoms ofnausea,vomiting,sweating, andabdominal pain appearing several hours after ingestion and continuing for several days.[55][56] People who take overdoses of paracetamol do not fall asleep or lose consciousness, although most people who attempt suicide with paracetamol wrongly believe that they will be rendered unconscious by the drug.[57][58] Method-specific restriction through reducing package size in the UK and Ireland has reduced suicide deaths by drug overdose.[59]
A particular type of poisoning involves the inhalation of high levels ofcarbon monoxide (CO). Death usually occurs throughhypoxia. A nonfatal attempt can result in memory loss and other symptoms.[60]
Carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorlessgas, so its presence cannot be detected by sight or smell. It acts by binding preferentially to thehemoglobin in the bloodstream, displacing oxygen molecules and progressively deoxygenating the blood, eventually resulting in the failure ofcellular respiration and death. Carbon monoxide is extremely dangerous to bystanders and people who may discover the body; right-to-die advocatePhilip Nitschke has therefore recommended against this method.[61][self-published source?]
Beforeair quality regulations andcatalytic converters, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning was often achieved by running a car's engine in an enclosed space such as a garage, or by redirecting a running car's exhaust back inside the cabin with a hose.Motor car exhaust may have contained up to 25% carbon monoxide. Catalytic converters found on all modern automobiles eliminate over 99% of carbon monoxide produced.[62] As a further complication, the amount of unburned gasoline in emissions can make exhaust unbearable to breathe well before a person loses consciousness.
Charcoal-burning suicide induces death fromcarbon monoxide poisoning. Originally used inHong Kong, it spread toJapan,[63] where small charcoal-burning heaters (hibachi) or stoves (shichirin) have been used in a sealed room. By 2001, this method accounted for 25% of deaths from suicide in Japan.[64] Nonfatal attempts can result in severebrain damage due tocerebral anoxia.
Gas-oven suicide was a common method of suicide in the early to mid-20th centuries in some North American and European countries. Household gas was originallycoal gas, also calledilluminating gas, or town gas, which was composed of methane, hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Stoves of this era required one to manually ignite apilot light with amatch; without the combustion the gas cloud would spread unimpeded.Carbon monoxide poisoning was the proximate cause of death.Natural gas, introduced in the 1960s, is composed of methane, ethane and anodorant added for safety.[65] The suicide rates by domestic gas fell from 1960 to 1980, as changes were made to the formula to make it less lethal.[3][66]
In the United States, suicide by firearm is the most lethal method of suicide, resulting in a fatality 90% of the time,[29] and is thus the leading cause of death bysuicide as of 2017.[71] Worldwide, firearm prevalence in suicides varies widely, depending on the acceptance and availability of firearms in a culture. The use of firearms in suicides ranges from less than 10% in Australia[72] to 50.5% in the U.S., where it is the most common method of suicide.[73]
Generally, thebullet will be aimed atpoint-blank range. Surviving a self-inflicted gunshot may result in severechronic pain as well as reduced cognitive abilities and motor function,subdural hematoma, foreign bodies in the head,pneumocephalus andcerebrospinal fluid leaks. For temporal bone directed bullets, temporal lobe abscess, meningitis, aphasia, hemianopsia, and hemiplegia are common late intracranial complications. As many as 50% of people who survive gunshot wounds directed at the temporal bone suffer facial nerve damage, usually due to a severed nerve.[74]
Reducing access to guns at a population level decreases the risk of suicide by firearms.[75][76][77]
Fewer people die from suicide overall in places with stricter laws regulating the use, purchase, and trading of firearms.[78][79] Suicide risk goes up when firearms are more available.[80][81][82]
Gun control is a primary method of reducing suicide by people who live in a home with guns. Prevention measures include simple actions such as locking all firearms in agun safe or installinggun locks.[21] Some people self-impose a barrier to using the keys to unlock their guns, such as by asking a friend to keep the keys in a different place, or by freezing them in an ice cube.[83] This prevents spur-of-the-moment access to their own guns.[83] Some stores that sell guns provide temporary storage as a service; in other cases, a trusted friend or family member will offer to store the guns until the crisis has passed.[20][21] When a person is going through a crisis,red flag laws in some places allow family members to petition the courts to have firearms temporarily removed and stored elsewhere.
More firearms are involved in suicide than are involved in homicides in the United States. A 1999 study ofCalifornia and gun mortality found that a person is more likely to die by suicide if they have purchased a firearm, with a measurable increase of suicide by firearm beginning at most a week after the purchase and continuing for six years or more.[84]
The United States has both the highest number of suicides and firearms in circulation in a developed country, and when gun ownership rises so too does suicide involving the use of a firearm.[85][86] A 2004 report by theNational Academy of Sciences found an association between estimated household firearm ownership and gunsuicide rates,[87][88] though a study by two Harvard researchers did not find astatistically significant association between household firearms and gun suicide rates,[89] except in the suicides of children aged 5–14.[89] Another study found that gun prevalence rates were positively associated with suicide rates among people aged 15 to 24, and 65 to 84, but not among those aged 25 to 64.[90] Access to firearms is associated with a higher risk of suicide,[91] especially for people keeping loaded guns in the home.[92] Numerous ecological and time series studies have also shown a positive association between gun ownership rates and suicide rates.[93][94][95] This association tends to only exist for firearm-related and overall suicides, not for non-firearm suicides.[94][96][97][98] Studies consistently find a relationship between gun ownership and gun-related suicides, with few exceptions.[99] A 2016 study found a positive association between gun ownership and both gun-related and overall suicides among men, but not among women; gun ownership was only strongly associated with gun-related suicides among women.[100] During the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a strong upward trend in adolescent suicides with a gun,[101] as well as a sharp overall increase in suicides among those age 75 and over.[102]
Firearm-related suicides declined in Australia after the introduction ofnationwide gun control. The same study found no evidence of substitution to other methods.[103] In Canada, gun suicides declined after gun control, but other methods rose, leading to no change in the overall rates.[104][105][106] Similarly, in New Zealand, gun suicides declined after more legislation, but overall suicide rates did not change;[107] this might be due to the highly stringent firearm storage laws and very low prevalence of handgun ownership in New Zealand.[108] A study about Canada found no significant correlations between provincial firearm ownership and overall provincial suicide rates.[109]
Jumping is the most common method of suicide inHong Kong, accounting for 52.1% of all reported suicide cases in 2006 and similar rates for the years before that.[110] The Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of theUniversity of Hong Kong believes that it may be due to the abundance of easily accessiblehigh-rise buildings in Hong Kong.[111] In the United States, jumping is among the least common methods of suicide (less than 2% of all reported suicides in 2005).[36] Between 1937 and 2012, there were around 2,000suicides at the Golden Gate Bridge.[112] Jumping deaths are often impulsive, and one study of the Golden Gate Bridge demonstrated that more than 90% of people interrupted in a suicide attempt ultimately died by natural or accidental causes, with only 6% dying in a subsequent suicide attempt.[112]
Many jumping deaths could be prevented through the construction of fencing or other safety equipment. For example, suicide by jumping into avolcanic crater is a rare method of suicide.Mount Mihara inJapan briefly became a notorious suicide site during theGreat Depression following media reports of a suicide there.Copycat suicides in the ensuing years prompted the erection of a protective fence surrounding the crater.[113][114] Similarly, in New Zealand, secure fencing at theGrafton Bridge substantially reduced the rate of suicides.[115] Chest-high barriers are more effective than waist-high barriers because they require more time and effort to climb over.[112]
Constructing barriers is not the only option, and it can be expensive.[116] Other method-specific prevention actions include making staff members visible in high-risk areas, usingclosed-circuit television cameras to identify people in inappropriate places or behaving abnormally (e.g., lingering in a place that people normally spend little time in), and installing awnings and soft-looking landscaping, which deters suicide attempts by making the place look ineffective.[116]
Another factor in reducing jumping deaths is to avoid suggesting in news articles, signs, or other communication that a high-risk place is a common, appropriate, or effective place for dying by jumping from.[116] The efficacy of signage is uncertain, and may depend on whether the wording is simple and appropriate.[116]
A fatal self-inflicted wound to thewrist is termed adeep wrist injury, and is often preceded by several tentative surface-breaking attempts known ashesitation wounds, indicating indecision or aself-harm tactic.[117] For every suicide by wrist cutting, there are many more nonfatal attempts, so that the number of actual deaths using this method is very low.[118]
Wounds from suicide attempts involve the non-dominant hand, with damage often done to themedian nerve,ulnar nerve,radial artery,palmaris longus muscle, andflexor carpi radialis muscle.[119][117] Such injuries can severely affect the function of the hand, and the inability caused to carry out work or interests increases the risk of further attempts.[117]
Seppuku is a form of Japanese ritualsuicide bydisembowelment. While reserved forsamurai in theircode of honour, a feminine counterpart of female ritual suicide also exists (sometimes incorrectly referred to in western understanding as jigai), which involves cutting thejugular vein. While seppuku requires the assistance of another samurai, jigai can be performed on the self. Seppuku is painful and slow - neither method is common in the modern day.[120][121][122]
A classification has been made ofVoluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED) which is often resorted to by those with a terminal illness.[123][124] This includesfasting anddehydration, and has also been referred to asautoeuthanasia.[125] It has been used byassisted dying activists, such asWendy Mitchell, as an means of death in places where assisted suicide is not available.
Fasting to death has been used byHindu,Buddhist, andJain ascetics and householders, as a ritual method of suicide known as "prayopavesa" inHinduism; "sokushinbutsu" historically inBuddhism; and as "sallekhana" inJainism.[126][127][128]Cathars also fasted to death after receiving theconsolamentum sacrament, in order to die while in a morally perfect state.[129] The method is also used in passivesenicide and associated with the political protest of thehunger strike such as the1981 Irish hunger strike in which ten prisoners died.
Death from dehydration can take from several days to a few weeks. This means that unlike many other suicide methods, it cannot be accomplished impulsively. Those who die by terminal dehydration typically lapse into unconsciousness before death, and may also experiencedelirium and derangedserum sodium.[130]
Terminal dehydration has been described as having substantial advantages over physician-assisted suicide with respect toself-determination, access, professional integrity, and social implications. Specifically, a patient has a right to refuse treatment and it would be a personal assault for someone to force water on a patient, but such is not the case if a doctor merely refuses to provide lethal medication.[131] But it also has distinctive drawbacks as a humane means of voluntary death.[132] One survey of hospice nurses found that nearly twice as many had cared for patients who chose voluntary refusal of food and fluids to hasten death as had cared for patients who chose physician-assisted suicide.[133] They also rated fasting and dehydration as causing less suffering and pain and being more peaceful than physician-assisted suicide.[134][124] Other sources note very painful side effects of dehydration, including seizures, skin cracking and bleeding, blindness, nausea, vomiting, cramping and severe headaches.[135]
Another suicide method is to lie down, or throw oneself, in the path of a fast-moving vehicle, either on the road or onto railway tracks. Nonfatal attempts may result in profound injuries, such asmultiple bone fractures,amputations,concussion and severemental andphysical handicapping.[136]
Some people use intentional car crashes as a suicide method. This especially applies to single-occupant, single-vehicle wrecks,[38] although some suicidal drivers causehead-on collisions.[137] Even single-vehicle collisions may harm other road users; for example, a driver who brakes abruptly or swerves to avoid a suicidal person may collide with something else on the road, resulting in harm to the driver or others. Both the innocent driver and bystanders may betraumatized by the experience, even if everyone survives. Being victimized by a suicidalpedestrian is recognized as anoccupational hazard for professional drivers, especially if they operate heavy vehicles.[38][137]
The real percentage of suicides among motor vehicle fatalities is not reliably known and likely varies by the ease of accessing a car and the ease of accessing other methods. Suicidal intent is often inferred from the circumstances, such as the driver being alone in the vehicle, driving at a high speed, without normal use of aseat belt, under circumstances that do not normally result in fatal wrecks (e.g., a straight road and good weather conditions).[38] Somewhere between 1% and 10% of all crashes (fatal and non-fatal combined) likely result from suicidal intent.[138][38] In addition a vehicle being used as a method (e.g., deliberately causing a wreck), a vehicle may be the location of a suicide attempt using another method (e.g., while the suicidal person is inside a parked car).[38]
People who attempt vehicular suicide or murder–suicides tend to be adult men who recently experienced a stressful event.[38] They tend to beimpulsive, to have previously attempted suicide, and to have a history ofreckless driving.[38] Suicidal drivers are unlikely to be drunk at the time, though in the case ofvehicle–pedestrian collisions, it may be difficult to determine whether an intoxicated pedestrian had suicidal intent or was non-suicidal but was so drunk as to be unable to recognize and respond to a dangerous situation.[38]
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Rail suicide is deliberate self-harm resulting in death by means of a movingrail vehicle.[139] The suicide occurs when an approaching train hits a suicidal pedestrian jumping onto, lying down on, or wandering or standing on the tracks.[140] Low friction on the tracks usually makes it impossible for the train to stop quickly enough. On urban mass transit rail systems that use a high-voltage electrifiedthird rail, the suicide may also touch or be otherwise drawn into contact with it, addingelectrocution to the cause of death.
Unlike other methods, rail suicide often directly affects the general public. Trains must be rerouted temporarily to clean the tracks and investigate the incident, causing delays for passengers and crews that may extend far beyond the site, a costly economic inconvenience.Train drivers in particular, effectively forced into being accomplices to the suicide they witness, often sufferpost-traumatic stress disorder that has adversely affected their personal lives and careers.[141] In recent years railways and their unions have been offering more support to afflicted drivers.
Research into the demographics of rail suicide has shown that most are male and have diagnosedmental illness, to a greater extent than suicides in general. The correlation of rail suicide and mental illness has led to some sites along rail lines near mental hospitals becoming rail suicide hotspots; some researchers have recommended that no such facilities be located within walking distance of stations. Within the developed world, The Netherlands and Germany have high rates of rail suicide whilethe U.S. andCanada have the lowest rates. While suicides on urban mass transit usually take place at stations, on conventional rail systems they are generally split almost evenly between stations,level crossings and the open stretches of track between them.
Prevention efforts have generally focused on suicide in general, on the grounds that not much can be done at tracks themselves, since suicides are believed to be determined enough to overcome most efforts to keep them from the tracks. Rail-specific means of prevention have includedplatform screen doors, which has been highly successful at reducing suicide on some urban mass transit systems, calming lights, and putting signs withsuicide hotline numbers at sites likely to be used. Some rail networks have also trained their staff to watch, either in person or remotely, for behavioural indicators of a possible suicide attempt and intervene before it happens. Media organisations have also been advised to be circumspect in reporting some details of a rail suicide in order to avoidcopycat suicides, such as those that happened after German football goalkeeperRobert Enke took his own life on the tracks in 2009, a suicide widely covered in European media.Toward the end of the 20th century, one or two pilots in the USdied by suicide by aircraft each year.[142] The pilot was usually flying alone at the time, and was using alcohol or drugs about half the time.[142][143] In the rare case of a pilot engaging in murder–suicide, the number of innocent people is sometimes very high. On 24 March 2015, a Germanwings co-pilot deliberately crashedGermanwings Flight 9525 into theFrench Alps to kill himself, killing 150 people with him.[144][145] Suicide by pilot has also been proposed as a potential cause for the disappearance and following destruction ofMalaysian Airlines Flight 370 in 2014,[146] with supporting evidence being found in aflight simulator application used by the flight's pilot.[147]
There have been documented cases ofgay men deliberately trying to contract a disease such asHIV/AIDS as a means of suicide.[148][149][150]
Suicide by electrocution involves using a lethalelectric shock, and is a rarely used method.[151] This causes arrhythmias of the heart, meaning that the heart does not contract in synchrony between the different chambers, essentially causing elimination of blood flow. Furthermore, depending on thecurrent, burns may also occur.
Self-immolation is suicide usually byfire. This method of suicide is rare due to it being long and painful. If the attempt is intervened, severe burns and scar tissue will prevail with subsequent emotional impact.
It has been used as a protest tactic, byThích Quảng Đức in 1963 to protest theSouth Vietnam's anti-Buddhist policies; byMalachi Ritscher in 2006 to protest theUnited States' involvement in theIraq War; byMohamed Bouazizi in 2011 inTunisia which gave rise to theTunisian Revolution;[152] byAaron Bushnell in 2024 to protest the United States' support for Israel in the Israel–Hamas war;[153] and historically as a ritual known assati where aHindu widow would immolate herself in her husband'sfuneral pyre.[154]
Hypothermia is a rare method of suicide. Between 1991 and 2014 in the United States, there were eight cases in the scientific literature, and they usually involved some other factor like drugs.[155]
Indirect suicide is the act of setting out on an obviously fatal course without directly carrying out the act upon oneself. Indirect suicide is differentiated from legally defined suicide by the fact that the person does not directly cause the action meant to kill them, but rather expects and allows the action to happen to them.[citation needed] Examples of indirect suicide include a soldier enlisting in thearmy with the intention and expectation of being killed in combat, or provoking an armed law enforcement officer into using lethal force against them. The latter is generally called "suicide by cop".
Evidence exists for suicide bycapital crime incolonial Australia. Convicts seeking to escape their brutal treatment would murder another individual. This was felt necessary due to a religious taboo against direct suicide. A personcommitting suicide was believed to be destined forhell, whereas a person committing murder could beabsolved of their sins before execution. In its most extreme form, groups of prisoners on the extremely brutal penal colony ofNorfolk Island would form suicide lotteries. Prisoners woulddraw straws with one prisoner murdering another. The remaining participants would witness the crime, and would be sent away toSydney, as capital trials could not be held onNorfolk Island, thus earning a break from the Island. There is uncertainty as to the extent of suicide lotteries. While surviving contemporary accounts claim that the practice was common, such claims are probably exaggerated.[156]
Ritual suicide is performed in a specifically prescribed way, often as part of a cultural or religious practice.Suicide by hanging was traditionally practiced inChina and theSinosphere as a means of ensuring that one'sghost would be able to haunt and torment the powerful but unjust.Self-immolation was practiced similarly inIndia and spread withDharmic religions. Some forms of suicide involve or are understood asmartyrdom and are undertaken ritualistically.Sallekhana is the practice of ritualized starvation followingJain practices.[157]Romans who considered themselves dishonored would "fall on their sword", ritualistically transfixing themselves on theirswords; the similarmedieval Japanese practice became known asseppuku orharakiri for samurai. Female ritual suicide (incorrectly referred to in some English sources asjigai)[158] was carried out in Japan by wives of samurai who had committed seppuku or otherwise brought dishonour.[122]
Drowning is a common suicide method for those with schizophrenia, psychotic disorders and dementia.
Table 1
One study found a statistically significant relationship between estimated gun ownership levels and suicide rate across 14 developed nations (e.g. where survey data on gun ownership levels were available), but the association lost its statistical significance when additional countries were included.
While such cases suggest that the acts have been inspired by the Japanese tradition of seppuku, the absence of any such cultural sanctioning in other countries and the omnipresence of mental illness suggest that they should be described simply as suicide or suicide attempts by self-stabbing[68] rather than seppuku, harakiri, or jigai. Indeed, it has been arguedthat equating mere acts of self-stabbing with seppukuis "misleading at best, just as a casual benediction offered among friends while serving wine and crackers as refreshments ought not to be equated with the rite of Catholic Eucharist"
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