title: Gender issues in suicide rates, trends and methods among youths aged 15-24 in 15 European countries.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  No recent cross-country examinations for youth suicide trends and methods for Europe were found.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the study is to specify differences in suicide rates, trends and methods used among 15-24 years olds by gender across 15 European countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data for 14,738 suicide cases in the age group 15-24 in 2000-2004/5 were obtained and analysed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Suicide rates ranged 5.5-35.1 for males and 1.3-8.5 for females. Statistically significant decline since 2000 was observed in Germany, Scotland, Spain, and England for males and in Ireland for females. Hanging was most frequently used for both genders, followed by jumping and use of a moving object for males and jumping and poisoning by drugs for females. Male suicides had a higher risk than females of using firearms and hanging and lower risk of poisoning by drugs and jumping. There were large differences between single countries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The limitations of the study are the small numbers of specific suicide methods in some countries as well as the re-categorisation of ICD-9 codes into ICD-10 in England, Ireland and Portugal. Further, the use of suicides (X60-X84) without events of undetermined deaths (Y10-Y34) continues to be problematic considering the possibility of "hidden suicides".
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study shows that suicide rates among young males are decreasing since 2000 in several European countries. Analysis of suicide methods confirms that there is a very high proportion of hanging in youths, which is extremely difficult to restrict. However, besides hanging there are also high rates of preventable suicide methods and reducing the availability of means should be one of the goals of suicide prevention.
authors.affiliation: Estonian-Swedish Mental Health and Suicidology Institute, Estonian Centre of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Tallinn, Estonia. airiv@online.ee
authors.forename: Airi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Värnik
authors.forename: Kairi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kõlves
authors.forename: Jüri
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Allik
authors.forename: Ella
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Arensman
authors.forename: Esa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Aromaa
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: van Audenhove
authors.forename: Jean-Hervé
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Bouleau
authors.forename: Christina M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: van der Feltz-Cornelis
authors.forename: Giancarlo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Giupponi
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gusmão
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kopp
authors.forename: Andrej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marusic
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maxwell
authors.forename: Högni
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Oskarsson
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Palmer
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pull
authors.forename: Anu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Realo
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Reisch
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schmidtke
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pérez Sola
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wittenburg
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Hegerl
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012737:Sex Factors; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*; D055815:Young Adult