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Characteristics of immigrant suicide completers in a sample of suicide victims from Greece

Author

Listed:
  • Antonios Paraschakis
  • Ioannis Michopoulos
  • Christos Christodoulou
  • Filippos Koutsaftis
  • Lefteris Lykouras
  • Athanassios Douzenis

Abstract

Background: Immigrants have higher rates of suicidal behaviour in comparison to the indigenous population. Aims: To describe the characteristics of foreign nationality suicide completers and search for differences between them and native Greeks. This is the first study focused on immigrant suicide victims in Greece. Methods: Data were collected for all recorded cases of completed suicide for the two-year period November 2007 to October 2009 at the Athens Department of Forensic Medicine, the largest, by far, of its kind in Greece covering approximately 35% of the country’s population. The material was collected using the method of psychological autopsy as well as from the victims’ forensic records. Results: Nearly 10% of Greece’s 11 million population are of foreign nationality. Approximately half of them live in Athens and its suburbs, an area where 35% of Greece’s population lives. In our sample, 15.8% of the suicide victims were of foreign nationality (53 cases): 41 men (77.4%) and 12 women (22.6%). Higher suicide rates were found for citizens of Kuwaiti (9.1%), Somali (6.7%) and Afghan (0.9%) nationality (immigrant communities with very few members); the lower suicide rates were for individuals of Egyptian (0.01%), Ukrainian (0.01%) and Albanian (0.006%) nationality (the Albanian immigrant community is the largest in Greece). In comparison to their Greek counterparts, immigrant victims were younger (mean age 38.7 vs 54.9 years, p

Suggested Citation

  • Antonios Paraschakis & Ioannis Michopoulos & Christos Christodoulou & Filippos Koutsaftis & Lefteris Lykouras & Athanassios Douzenis, 2014. "Characteristics of immigrant suicide completers in a sample of suicide victims from Greece," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 60(5), pages 462-467, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:60:y:2014:i:5:p:462-467
    DOI: 10.1177/0020764013496081
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Taylor, Richard & Morrell, Stephen & Slaytor, Emma & Ford, Paul, 1998. "Suicide in urban New South Wales, Australia 1985-1994: socio-economic and migrant interactions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 47(11), pages 1677-1686, December.
    2. Frank Trovato, 1986. "A Time Series Analysis of International Immigration and Suicide Mortality in Canada," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 32(2), pages 38-46, June.
    3. Peter J. Aspinall, 2002. "Suicide amongst Irish Migrants in Britain: A Review of the Identity and Integration Hypothesis," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 48(4), pages 290-304, December.
    4. Michael Ritsner & Alexander Ponizovsky, 1999. "Psychological Distress Through Immigration: the Two-Phase Temporal Pattern?," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 45(2), pages 125-139, June.
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