title: Network analysis for motives in suicide cases: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Suicide victims have various distresses or motives. There are few studies on how these motives toward suicide relate with each other. We used network analyses to extract the structures of correlations among the motives for suicide.
  
  
  METHODS
  We obtained datasets of suicide victims from 2007-2009 in Japan in cooperation with Ibaraki Prefectural Police Headquarters. The data were analyzed by network centrality measures and a structural analysis by block modeling.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the motives, depression and physical illness showed relatively high scores of 'degree centrality', whereas depression and unemployment showed relatively high scores of 'betweenness centrality'. Structural analysis by block modeling resulted in eight blocks. The most important block comprised eight motives, including conflict between parent and child, marital conflict, economic hardship, and overloaded with debt.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Depression and physical illness were important and priority areas for completed suicides, although these two motives had different influences on suicide behaviors. Furthermore, structural analysis revealed the important role of a block, including some familial and financial motives, which induced hopelessness. Our results suggest that it might be useful to consider the common ways in which motivations for suicide are tied together when suicide intervention is launched from a social model point of view.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, Ibaraki, Japan; Ibaraki Prefectural Medical Center of Psychiatry, Ibaraki, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shiratori
authors.forename: Hirokazu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tachikawa
authors.forename: Kiyotaka
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nemoto
authors.forename: Go
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Endo
authors.forename: Miyuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aiba
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsui
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Asada
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D012307:Risk Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology*; D014478:Unemployment / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: completed suicide; hopelessness; motive; network analysis; police statistics