title: Differences in characteristics between suicide victims who left notes or not.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Suicide notes (SN) are one of markers of the severity of a suicide attempt and are said to provide a valuable insight into the thinking of suicide victims before the fatal act [Shah, A., De, T., 1998. Suicide and the elderly. Int. J. Psychiat. Clin Pract. 2, 3-18]. To examine whether suicide victims who wrote notes (note writers: NW) differ from those who did not, we investigated the characteristics of a sample of more than 5000 Japanese suicides using multiple logistic regression analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  For all suicide victims (5161 cases), we examined the following information: gender, age, suicide method, reason for suicide, marital status, residential status, history of psychiatric disorders, previous suicidal behavior, physical disease, and content of suicide notes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean incidence of NW was 30.1% (male: 29.7%, female: 30.8%). NW in Japan had the following characteristics; higher proportion in female and living alone, suicide by more lethal methods such as carbon monoxide, hanging or sharp instruments. On the other hand, non-NW had tendencies to commit suicide for reasons of physical illness and psychiatric disorder, and/or history of previous psychiatric disorders.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study is observational and discusses only completed, not attempted, suicide. Medical and psychiatric comorbidity are judged only by the history of diagnosis and the information about the problems in relationships is based not on valid criteria for inclusion.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although these findings show ethnic differences, it is possible that SN may be considered an indicator of a serious suicide attempt. Further studies of SN are needed to confirm this.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, 1-757 Asahimachi, Niigata 951-8510, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kuwabara
authors.forename: Toshiki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shioiri
authors.forename: Akiyoshi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nishimura
authors.forename: Ryo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: Hideyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nushida
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ueno
authors.forename: Kohei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Akazawa
authors.forename: Toshiyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Someya
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014956:Writing