Cluster Suicide
What provokes suicide clusters?
While clusters have included friends or acquaintances in the same school or church, it is not necessary for the decedents to have direct contact with each other: sometimes knowledge of the first suicides were obtained through the news media. Other mechanisms, such as a shared environmental stressor, may also underlie suicide clusters. Our research is studying the mechanisms that initiate and sustain a suicide cluster.
Who gets involved in cluster suicide?
Clusters have been reported among psychiatric inpatients, high school and college students, Native Americans, marine troops, prison inmates and religious sects. My own research found that suicide clusters in the U.S. occur predominantly among teenagers and young adults. Just as occurs in sporadic suicides, behavioral and psychiatric problems make cluster members more susceptible to suicide.
How common are clusters?
A study that was conducted found that clustered suicides account for 1%-5% of all teen suicides in the US, with considerable variation by state and year. Every year in the United States 100 to 200 teenagers die in suicide clusters, and there are signs that the rate is rising. These estimates do not include clusters of attempted suicides, as there is no registry of suicide attempts.
