Suicide Research: Problems with Interpreting Results

Abstract

There is a great deal of misinformation about suicide and the causes of suicide which has helped to establish mindsets and myths about suicide and how to prevent it. Within the suicide literature including policy documents both prevention and intervention have become confused and often used interchangeably. In this paper, the evidence for two of the most common mindsets, namely depression and suicide, and media reporting and suicide, are examined. The uncritical assessment of evidence and misinformation are responsible for the politicisation of suicide prevention policy development. Politicisation of suicide prevention, in turn, has made all the actors involved part of the problem, rather than the solution.