”..and then there is this belief, in some circles, that if you put out information, any sort of information, about suicide, that will lead to copycat suicides. Now that’s a point of view it’s not actually a point of view that many, particularly in the mainstream media actually adhere to, they don’t accept it’s necessarily so.”

Judge Neil Maclean

Studies in Japan[6] and Germany[7] have replicated findings of an imitative effect. Etzersdorfer et al.[8] in an Austrian study showed a strong correlation between the number of papers distributed in various areas and the number of subsequent firearm suicides in each area after a related media report. Higher rates of copycat suicides have been found in those with similarities in race,[6] age, and gender[9] to the victim in the original report. Stack[10] analyzed the results from 42 studies and found that those measuring the effect of a celebrity suicide story were 14.3 times more likely to find a copycat effect than studies that did not. Studies based on a real as opposed to fictional story were 4.03 times more likely to uncover a copycat effect and research based on televised stories was 82% less likely to report a copycat effect than research based on newspapers. Other scholars have been less certain about whether copycat suicides truly happen or are selectively hyped. For instance, fears of a suicide wave following the death of Kurt Cobain never materialized in an actual increase in suicides.[11] Similarly the researcher Gerard Sullivan has critiqued research on copycat suicides, suggesting that data analyses have been selective and misleading, and that the evidence for copycat suicides are much less consistent than suggested by some researchers.[12]

Many people interviewed after the suicide of a relative or friend have a tendency to simplify the issues; their grief can lead to their minimizing or ignoring significant factors. Studies show a high incidence of psychiatric disorders in suicide victims at the time of their death with the total figure ranging from 98%[13] to 87.3%[14] with mood disorders and substance abuse being the two most common. These are often undiagnosed or untreated and treatment can result in reductions in the suicide rate. Reports that minimize the impact of psychiatric disorders contribute to copycat suicides whereas reports that mention this factor and provide help-line contact numbers and advice for where sufferers may gain assistance can reduce suicides.

Surely classifying research as ‘belief’ and ‘a point of view’, ‘in some circles’, whilst similarly obscuring the opposing research and instead focusing on another ‘point of view that many’, ‘particularly in the mainstream media actually adhere to’ is

1. an unbalanced way to present the argument
2. largely dismissive of the role research should play in settling the debate.