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Association between suicide reporting in the media and suicide: systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between reporting on suicides, especially deaths of celebrities by suicide, and subsequent suicides in the general population. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: PubMed/Medline, PsychInfo, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and Google Schola...

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Autores principales: Niederkrotenthaler, Thomas, Braun, Marlies, Pirkis, Jane, Till, Benedikt, Stack, Steven, Sinyor, Mark, Tran, Ulrich S, Voracek, Martin, Cheng, Qijin, Arendt, Florian, Scherr, Sebastian, Yip, Paul S F, Spittal, Matthew J
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7190013/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32188637
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m575
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author Niederkrotenthaler, Thomas
Braun, Marlies
Pirkis, Jane
Till, Benedikt
Stack, Steven
Sinyor, Mark
Tran, Ulrich S
Voracek, Martin
Cheng, Qijin
Arendt, Florian
Scherr, Sebastian
Yip, Paul S F
Spittal, Matthew J
author_facet Niederkrotenthaler, Thomas
Braun, Marlies
Pirkis, Jane
Till, Benedikt
Stack, Steven
Sinyor, Mark
Tran, Ulrich S
Voracek, Martin
Cheng, Qijin
Arendt, Florian
Scherr, Sebastian
Yip, Paul S F
Spittal, Matthew J
author_sort Niederkrotenthaler, Thomas
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between reporting on suicides, especially deaths of celebrities by suicide, and subsequent suicides in the general population. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: PubMed/Medline, PsychInfo, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and Google Scholar, searched up to September 2019. REVIEW METHODS: Studies were included if they compared at least one time point before and one time point after media reports on suicide; follow-up was two months or less; the outcome was death by suicide; and the media reports were about non-fictional suicides. Data from studies adopting an interrupted time series design, or single or multiple arm before and after comparisons, were reviewed. RESULTS: 31 studies were identified and analysed, and 20 studies at moderate risk of bias were included in the main analyses. The risk of suicide increased by 13% in the period after the media reported a death of a celebrity by suicide (rate ratio 1.13, 95% confidence interval 1.08 to 1.18; 14 studies; median follow-up 28 days, range 7-60 days). When the suicide method used by the celebrity was reported, there was an associated 30% increase in deaths by the same method (rate ratio 1.30, 95% confidence interval 1.18 to 1.44; 11 studies; median follow-up 28 days, range 14-60 days). For general reporting of suicide, the rate ratio was 1.002 (0.997 to 1.008; five studies; median follow-up 1 day, range 1-8 days) for a one article increase in the number of reports on suicide. Heterogeneity was large and partially explained by celebrity and methodological factors. Enhanced funnel plots suggested some publication bias in the literature. CONCLUSIONS: Reporting of deaths of celebrities by suicide appears to have made a meaningful impact on total suicides in the general population. The effect was larger for increases by the same method as used by the celebrity. General reporting of suicide did not appear to be associated with suicide although associations for certain types of reporting cannot be excluded. The best available intervention at the population level to deal with the harmful effects of media reports is guidelines for responsible reporting. These guidelines should be more widely implemented and promoted, especially when reporting on deaths of celebrities by suicide. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42019086559.
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spelling pubmed-71900132020-05-01 Association between suicide reporting in the media and suicide: systematic review and meta-analysis Niederkrotenthaler, Thomas Braun, Marlies Pirkis, Jane Till, Benedikt Stack, Steven Sinyor, Mark Tran, Ulrich S Voracek, Martin Cheng, Qijin Arendt, Florian Scherr, Sebastian Yip, Paul S F Spittal, Matthew J BMJ Research OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between reporting on suicides, especially deaths of celebrities by suicide, and subsequent suicides in the general population. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: PubMed/Medline, PsychInfo, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and Google Scholar, searched up to September 2019. REVIEW METHODS: Studies were included if they compared at least one time point before and one time point after media reports on suicide; follow-up was two months or less; the outcome was death by suicide; and the media reports were about non-fictional suicides. Data from studies adopting an interrupted time series design, or single or multiple arm before and after comparisons, were reviewed. RESULTS: 31 studies were identified and analysed, and 20 studies at moderate risk of bias were included in the main analyses. The risk of suicide increased by 13% in the period after the media reported a death of a celebrity by suicide (rate ratio 1.13, 95% confidence interval 1.08 to 1.18; 14 studies; median follow-up 28 days, range 7-60 days). When the suicide method used by the celebrity was reported, there was an associated 30% increase in deaths by the same method (rate ratio 1.30, 95% confidence interval 1.18 to 1.44; 11 studies; median follow-up 28 days, range 14-60 days). For general reporting of suicide, the rate ratio was 1.002 (0.997 to 1.008; five studies; median follow-up 1 day, range 1-8 days) for a one article increase in the number of reports on suicide. Heterogeneity was large and partially explained by celebrity and methodological factors. Enhanced funnel plots suggested some publication bias in the literature. CONCLUSIONS: Reporting of deaths of celebrities by suicide appears to have made a meaningful impact on total suicides in the general population. The effect was larger for increases by the same method as used by the celebrity. General reporting of suicide did not appear to be associated with suicide although associations for certain types of reporting cannot be excluded. The best available intervention at the population level to deal with the harmful effects of media reports is guidelines for responsible reporting. These guidelines should be more widely implemented and promoted, especially when reporting on deaths of celebrities by suicide. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42019086559. BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. 2020-03-18 /pmc/articles/PMC7190013/ /pubmed/32188637 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m575 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
spellingShingle Research
Niederkrotenthaler, Thomas
Braun, Marlies
Pirkis, Jane
Till, Benedikt
Stack, Steven
Sinyor, Mark
Tran, Ulrich S
Voracek, Martin
Cheng, Qijin
Arendt, Florian
Scherr, Sebastian
Yip, Paul S F
Spittal, Matthew J
Association between suicide reporting in the media and suicide: systematic review and meta-analysis
title Association between suicide reporting in the media and suicide: systematic review and meta-analysis
title_full Association between suicide reporting in the media and suicide: systematic review and meta-analysis
title_fullStr Association between suicide reporting in the media and suicide: systematic review and meta-analysis
title_full_unstemmed Association between suicide reporting in the media and suicide: systematic review and meta-analysis
title_short Association between suicide reporting in the media and suicide: systematic review and meta-analysis
title_sort association between suicide reporting in the media and suicide: systematic review and meta-analysis
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7190013/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32188637
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m575
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