title: Inter-annual rainfall variations and suicide in New South Wales, Australia, 1964-2001.
abstract: The suicide rate in New South Wales is shown to be related to annual precipitation, supporting a widespread and long-held assumption that drought in Australia increases the likelihood of suicide. The relationship, although statistically significant, is not especially strong and is confounded by strong, long-term variations in the suicide rate not related to precipitation variations. A decrease in precipitation of about 300 mm would lead to an increase in the suicide rate of approximately 8% of the long-term mean suicide rate.
authors.affiliation: Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre, PO Box 1289K, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. n.nicholls@BoM.GoV.Au
authors.forename: Neville
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nicholls
authors.forename: Colin D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hanigan
mesh_terms: D004190:Disasters; D006801:Humans; D009517:New South Wales; D011891:Rain; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*