From the Editor
“Media reports about suicide have the potential to influence suicide rates. Most research in this area has focused on increased rates of suicide that follow widely reported stories of suicide death, often in celebrities, the so-called Werther effect. However, a small and growing literature has investigated the Papageno effect in which widely disseminated stories of mastery of suicide crises and survival are followed by fewer suicides.”
So opens a fascinating paper recently published in The British Journal of Psychiatry. In it, Sangsoo Shin (of the University of Melbourne) and her co-authors look at a highly publicized news story: the singer Jon Bon Jovi intervening to stop a woman’s suicide attempt in 2024. Was there a Papageno effect? The authors analyzed suicide mortality data spanning a decade in Tennessee and 19 other states with 60 subgroups. “This study provides the first evidence of a Papageno effect following a widely publicised, real-life survival story.” We consider the paper and its implications.
Suicide prevention has come a long way since the SAD PERSONS mnemonic that many of us learned in medical school. And the research continues to evolve. What to make of it all, and how should the latest research inform practice? In the second selection, an episode of Quick Takes, I speak with Dr. Mark Sinyor, professor at the University of Toronto and staff psychiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. We discuss the efficacy of suicide-prevention barriers (think the Bloor Viaduct here in Toronto) and restricting highly lethal pesticides. “You don’t actually need billions of dollars to prevent suicide. You just need really good coordination.”
In the third selection, from Lancet Psychiatry, a medical student discusses her suicidal thoughts. The paper – which is written anonymously – argues that many providers take the wrong approach when speaking to patients who are suicidal. “All I am saying is, if medicine placed the same emphasis on healing as it does on survival, I believe our approaches would change and perhaps our outcomes would improve as well.”
DG
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