Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27508001›Full record

ArticleAnnals of general psychiatry2016

Relationship of suicide rates with climate and economic variables in Europe during 2000-2012.

Konstantinos N Fountoulakis, Isaia Chatzikosta, Konstantinos Pastiadis, Prodromos Zanis, Wolfram Kawohl, Ad J F M Kerkhof, Alvydas Navickas, Cyril Höschl, Dusica Lecic-Tosevski, Eliot Sorel and 38 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Annals of general psychiatry, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
24citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

24 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Suicide and Associations with Air Pollution and Ambient Temperature: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021
    Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Review
  8. Demographic, Sociocultural, and Time-Related Patterns of Violent Suicide Attempts.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2025
    Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Spain's suicide statistics: do we believe them?Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2021
    Article
  13. Article
  14. Sex-specific and age-specific suicide mortality by method in 58 countries between 2000 and 2015.Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention · 2021
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Review
  19. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

48 authors.

Konstantinos N Fountoulakis3rd Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Isaia ChatzikostaAristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Konstantinos PastiadisDepartment of Music Studies, School of Fine Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Prodromos ZanisDepartment of Meteorology and Climatology, School of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Wolfram KawohlDepartment of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Center for Social Psychiatry, University Hospital of Psychiatry, Zurich, Switzerland.
Ad J F M KerkhofDepartment of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education, VU University Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Alvydas NavickasClinic of Psychiatric, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Cyril HöschlNational Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic.
Dusica Lecic-TosevskiInstitute of Mental Health, WHO Collaborating Centre, Palmoticeva 37, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
Eliot SorelThe George Washington University, School of Medicine & School of Public Health, Washington, DC USA.
Elmars RancansDepartment of Psychiatry and Narcology, Riga Stradins University, Tvaika Str. 2, Riga, LV 1005 Latvia.
Eva PalovaDepartment of Psychiatry, University Hospital, SNP 1, 040 66 Košice, Slovakia.
Georg JuckelDepartment of Psychiatry, Ruhr University Bochum, LWL-University Hospital, Alexandrinenstr.1, 44791 Bochum, Germany.
Goran IsacssonDepartment of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden.
Helena Korosec JagodicPsychiatric Hospital Vojnik, Celjska Cesta 37, Vojnik, Slovenia.
Ileana Botezat-AntonescuNational Mental Health Center and Anti-drug, Bucharest, Romania.
Janusz RybakowskiDepartment of Adult Psychiatry, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland.
Jean Michel AzorinDepartment of Psychiatry, Sainte Marguerite Hospital, 13274 Marseille, France.
John CooksonEast London NHS Trust, London, E1 4DG UK.
John WaddingtonMolecular & Cellular Therapeutics, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Peter PregeljUniversity Psychiatric Hospital, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Koen DemyttenaereUniversity Psychiatric Center KU Leuven, Louvain, Belgium.
Luchezar G HranovSecond Psychiatric Clinic, University Hospital for Active Treatment in Neurology and Psychiatry "Sveti Naum", Sofia, Bulgaria.
Lidija Injac StevovicPsychiatric Clinic, Clinical Center of Montenegro, School of Medicine, University of Montenegro, Podgorica, Montenegro.
Lucas PezawasDivision of Biological Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Marc AdidaDepartment of Psychiatry, Sainte Marguerite Hospital, 13274 Marseille, France.
Maria Luisa FigueraFaculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, Av. Prof. Egas Moniz, 1649-035 Lisbon, Portugal.
Miro JakovljevićDepartment of Psychiatry, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
Monica VichiCentre for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion (CNESPS), National Institute of Health (ISS), Rome, Italy.
Giulio PerugiPsychiatry Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy ; Institute of Behavioral Sciences "G. De Lisio", Pisa, Italy.
Ole A AndreassenNORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway ; Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
Olivera VukovicInstitute of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
Paraskevi MavrogiorgouDepartment of Psychiatry, Ruhr University Bochum, LWL-University Hospital, Alexandrinenstr.1, 44791 Bochum, Germany.
Peeter VarnikEstonian-Swedish Mental Health and Suicidology Institute, Tallinn, Estonia.
Peter DomeDepartment of Clinical and Theoretical Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary ; Laboratory for Suicide Research and Prevention, National Institute of Psychiatry and Addictions, Budapest, Hungary.
Petr WinklerNational Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic.
Raimo K R SalokangasDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
Tiina FromDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
Vita DanileviciuteClinic of Psychiatric, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Xenia GondaDepartment of Clinical and Theoretical Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary ; Laboratory for Suicide Research and Prevention, National Institute of Psychiatry and Addictions, Budapest, Hungary ; Department of Pharmacodynamics, MTA-SE, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary ; Neuropsychopharmacology and Neurochemistry Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.
Zoltan RihmerDepartment of Clinical and Theoretical Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary ; Laboratory for Suicide Research and Prevention, National Institute of Psychiatry and Addictions, Budapest, Hungary.
Jonas ForsmanDepartment of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden.
Anne GradyMolecular & Cellular Therapeutics, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Thomas HyphantisDepartment of Psychiatry, Ioannina School of Medicine, Ioannina, Greece.
Ingrid DiesetNORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway ; Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
Susan SoendergaardPsychiatric Research Unit, Mental Health Centre North Zealand, University of Copenhagen, Dyrehavevej 48, 3400 Hillerød, Denmark.
Maurizio PompiliDepartment of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sensory Organs, Suicide Prevention Center, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Per BechPsychiatric Research Unit, Mental Health Centre North Zealand, University of Copenhagen, Dyrehavevej 48, 3400 Hillerød, Denmark.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundIt is well known that suicidal rates vary considerably among European countries and the reasons for this are unknown, although several theories have been proposed. The effect of economic variables has been extensively studied but not that of climate.

methodsData from 29 European countries covering the years 2000-2012 and concerning male and female standardized suicidal rates (according to WHO), economic variables (according World Bank) and climate variables were gathered. The statistical analysis included cluster and principal component analysis and categorical regression.

resultsThe derived models explained 62.4 % of the variability of male suicidal rates. Economic variables alone explained 26.9 % and climate variables 37.6 %. For females, the respective figures were 41.7, 11.5 and 28.1 %. Male suicides correlated with high unemployment rate in the frame of high growth rate and high inflation and low GDP per capita, while female suicides correlated negatively with inflation. Both male and female suicides correlated with low temperature. DISCUSSION: The current study reports that the climatic effect (cold climate) is stronger than the economic one, but both are present. It seems that in Europe suicidality follows the climate/temperature cline which interestingly is not from south to north but from south to north-east. This raises concerns that climate change could lead to an increase in suicide rates. The current study is essentially the first successful attempt to explain the differences across countries in Europe; however, it is an observational analysis based on aggregate data and thus there is a lack of control for confounders.

Indexed as

AusterityClimateEuropeSuicide

Identifiers

PMID27508001
PMCPMC4977895

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