• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-3
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• 2019

Suicide is a major problem in Korean health care and a serious social problem. In Korea, 12,463 people (24.3 per 100,000) lost their lives due to suicide in 2017. Although the government has established three National Comprehensive Plan of Suicide Prevention (2004, 2009, 2016), and National Action Plan of Suicide Prevention (2018), the suicide rate is still high. The suicide rate of the elderly is especially high. This is due to the economic vulnerability of the elderly in Korea. Therefore, in order to prevent suicide in Korea, mental health care approach and social welfare approach should be integrated. The intervention of preventing suicide of suicide attempters should include social welfare services as well as mental health program and should be based on community. There are many health problems, including prevention of suicide, which can not be solved only by the efforts of health care. Many health problems are social problems and the integrated approach is needed to solve them. In order to solve many health care problems and improve health, integrated approach of health, social science, and humanities is needed.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.31-60
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• 2023

Purpose: This study explored the influencing factors on suicide-related behaviors (ideation, plans, and attempts) focusing on mental health problems (anxiety, depression, and loneliness) among Korean adolescents. Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted with data from the 16th Korean Youth Health Behavior Survey collected from in 2020 by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chi-square tests and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: After the adjustment of demographic characteristics and health risk behaviors, the influences of mental health problems on suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts showed the anxiety odds ratio (OR) for severe anxiety vs. minimal (OR 4.65, 4.67, and 3.75), depression (OR 4.27, 3.69, and 4.49), loneliness (OR 2.18, 1.96, and 1.96). Health risk behaviors (violence experience, drug use, stress, smoking, and drinking alcohol) and demographic variables (gender, school record, and socioeconomic status) were also significantly associated with suicide-related behaviors. Conclusion: Anxiety, depression, and loneliness were strong predictors of suicide-related behaviors. Early detection of suicide risks through screening for comprehensive mental health problems was recommended. Suicide prevention that considers the risk factors, including mental health problems and other risk factors, needs to be developed and implemented to reduce suicide risks among adolescents.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.169-176
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• 2020

Exploring the risk factors of adolescent suicide is important for effective suicide prevention. This study explored the clustering of adolescent suicides based on six risk factors: mental disorder, broken family, depression, anxiety, previous suicide attempts, and deviant behaviors. Using 173 student suicide reports obtained from the Ministry of Education, we evaluated the associations between suicide and variables related to mental disorders; dysfunctional family life; depression and anxiety; previous suicide attempts; deviant behaviors such as drinking and smoking; and school life characteristics, including attendance and discipline, problems within the past year, and incidents prior to suicide. In addition, reports of warning signs just before suicide were included in the analysis. The two-stage cluster analysis classified the students into three clusters: the silent type (cluster 1; 48.55%), in which no risk factors were observed; environmental-risk type (cluster 2: 24.28%), which featured a high frequency of broken households, deviant behaviors such as smoking/drinking and running away from home; and depressive type (cluster 3: 27.17%), which featured a high frequency of mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts. Identifying the sub-types of adolescent suicide may help to inform tailored suicide prevention and intervention strategies in school.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.167-187
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• 2000

The rates and numbers of elderly suicide in Korea have been increased during 1985-1998. This indicates the seriousness of the problems which the elderly are faced with. So many late-life problems may push older people across the edges. Those in unbearable situations may call out fur helps, they may try to cope with various ways, or they may commit suicides. Because it is widely believed that suicide among the elderly can be understood as a personal solution or alternative to late-life problems in old age, the elderly\`s suicides seem to be an appropriate indicator in estimating seriousness of late-life problems. A comparison of the history of suicide research with other populations shows that the several late-life problems have been found with placing an individual elder at risks for increasing suicidal behaviors Research has identified such problems as financial insecurity, retirement, loss of social roles, physical illness, lack of social supports, and loneliness as the problems that increase the incidence of suicidal behavior. Though it is difficult far us to explain and understand the phenomenon of the elderly\`s suicide because of its complexity, we need to ascertain problems and social conditions behind suicides and also to prepare for some appropriate policy-tasks in light of social welfare for the aged, through examining the phenomenon. For explaining the elderly\`s suicide, the theoretical orientations are based on sociological perspectives in the paper. From the standpoints of social integration theory and exchange theory, this study is to examine the relationship between late-life problems and suicide. These two may have been fruitfully employed in conjunction with each other. Finally, this study would identify urgent late-life problems related with the elderly\`s suicide and suggest the relevant policies for Korean elders. Sometime in the near future, the government should be required to provide social welfare programs for the elderly, particularly for those at risk for increasing suicidal behaviors.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.266-272
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• 2015

Objectives : This study examined the impact of peer's suicide on mental health of middle-school students. The aim of this study was to describe the course of posttraumatic stress and grief reaction, suicide ideation, and depression score among adolescents after exposure to peer's suicide and to examine the relationship between posttraumatic stress and other mental health scores in these subjects. Methods : Thirty seven middle school students who were exposed to the suicidal death of a peer completed self-report measures to assess levels of depression, grief reaction, post-traumatic stress, and suicide ideation at 1 month and 8 months after the peer's suicide. Results : There was no significant change in mental health scores between 1 month and 8 months. Level of posttraumatic stress after 8 months was related to acute grief response. Subjects who experienced a clinically significant level of suicidal ideation and posttraumatic stress showed more mental health problems. Conclusion : The results suggested that peer's suicide strongly impacted mental health issues of adolescents at a critical time of adolescent development. Clinicians should perform a thorough evaluation of mental health problems for youth who experienced peer's suicide and help them in management of their grief reaction.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.33-46
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• 2021

Using news big data analysis, this study was aimed to examine the suicide phenomena in Korean society, and to evaluate whether suicide prevention policies reflect social phenomena appropriately. For this purpose, 9,142 news titles with suicide as the keyword were collected from eight central newspapers between 2000 to 2018. Nouns were extracted, and data was refined for network analysis. The total period was divided into 4 periods based on the 1st and 2nd suicide prevention policies, and the characteristics of suicide phenomena in each period were identified through the top 50 frequent main words and the clusters. As a result, period 1 (2000~2003) with 6 clusters (military, internet environment, economic problems, pessimism, school, corruption), period 2 (2004~2008) with 8 clusters (high social class, school, economic problems, suicide attempts, family issues, social problems, military, responsibilities), period 3 (2009~2013) with 6 clusters (school, family issues, suicide attempts, occupation, military, investigation), and period 4 (2014~2018) with 8 clusters (military, suicide insurance money, family issues, suicide attempts, occupation, job stress, celebrity, corruption) were identified. Study results suggested the characteristics of suicide phenomena in our society. Further, the appropriateness of the implementation of suicide prevention policies was discussed.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.73-82
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• 2011

Objectives: This study is to gain an understanding of the characteristics of suicides committed by university students in Korea by assessing news reports. Methods: A total of 97 news reports on university student suicides on daily newspapers and TV newscasts from 2000 to 2011 are included in this study. Analyses were performed on sociodemographic characteristics of suicided university students and temporal and other characteristics of the suicides. Results: Suicide rate was higher among males than females. The most frequently used method of suicide was jumping off while the most common place was the students’ residence. Issues related to academic and financial problems topped as the reasons for suicide. There were no differences in the reasons for committing suicide by school year and enrollment, but the location and season of committing suicide differed by reasons for suicide. Conclusions: Implication of this study, discussion on the results and suggestions for suicide prevention are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.64-73
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• 2020

Suicidality is the most serious complication of mood disorders and psychosis; effective treatment should reduce suicide rates. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development age-standardized suicide rate in Korea was 22.6 in 2018, much higher compared to other countries worldwide. As mental and psychiatric problems are the main reasons for suicide attempts, accounting for 31.6% in 2018, targeting such problems should be the focus of efforts to reduce suicide rates. However, the ability of current pharmacotherapeutic and psychotherapeutic interventions to reduce suicide rates is limited due to their delayed effects. Therefore, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been proposed as an alternative treatment. This approach is effective for treating most mental disorders associated with high suicide rates, including severe depression, bipolar disorder, and intractable psychotic disorders; ECT is also effective for Parkinson's disease, which has the highest suicide rate among all disorders in Korea. The acute, long-term, and prophylactic effects of ECT on suicidality have been reported in the literature, and treatment guidelines outside of Korea recommend that ECT be used at an early stage for rapid reduction of suicide rates, as opposed to being applied as a treatment of last resort. However, only ~0.092 of every 10000 members of the Korean general population received ECT in 2018; this is much lower than the average rate worldwide, of 2.2 per 10000. Elimination of obstacles to the use of ECT, early crisis intervention involving administration of ECT for rapid stabilization, and maintenance ECT to prevent recurrence should reduce suicide rates.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.34-42
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• 2005

Purposes: The purposes of this study were ① to identify the rate of suicide attempts, and ② to investigate relevant variables(family dynamic environment, personality factors) and risk factors for attempting suicide among Korean adolescents. Method: Data were collected through a questionnaire survey. Internal consistencies for this questionnaire ranged from 0.63 to 0.88. Nine hundred and twenty two adolescents were surveyed (delinquent : 367, student : 555), using a proportional stratified random sampling method. Statistical methods employed were chi-square, t-test, and logistic regression analysis. Results: ① The rate of suicide attempts was 10.8％ for the total sample, and the delinquents(19.6％) had a higher rate of suicide attempts than the students(5.1％). ② Adolescents attempting suicide had a greater dysfunctional family dynamic environment and more maladaptive personality than those who did not attempt suicide. ③ Risk factors for suicide attempts among Korean adolescents were way of coping, psychosomatic symptoms, and parental child-rearing attitudes, in that order. Conclusions: Suicide and suicidal behaviors are multifaceted events. For suicide prevention, there is a need to make an independent assessment of the variables such as familial problems, personality and dynamic environment of the families of the adolescents.

• Journal of forensic and investigative science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.5-22
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• 2007

From the numerous social problems generated by the unbalanced social development and the social trend of belittling life overall, we found the causes of suicide getting worse in its seriousness day by day. In reality, the problem has been approached in a collateral level in contrast with other social problems. There have been an active involvement in studying the definition, causes and ways of prevention of suicide theoretically until now. However, different from other social problems, it is almost impossible to treat or fix the problem of suicide. Only ways to treat or fix the problem is when the suicide has ended in failure. Thus, this study intends to examine the suicide rate among the total accidents during the year 2005, perform the analyses on the actual causes according to the relations such as the means of suicide, occupation, age group, educational background, etc. In order to present a solution to the issue of suicide becoming serious each day. Among the total accidents in 2005, the suicide rate came out to be approximately 52.4%. Among the result, 52.4%, male with 69% resulted higher than female with 31%, which appears to be related to the social functions. While men tends to take more active(80%) means of suicide like jumping off, poison, hanging, etc., women tends to take more passive(60%) means of suicide like sleeping pills, slitting wrist, etc. In terms of the cause, pessimism, illness, denial, mental disorder, etc resulted more than 75%, and there were many cases of suicide after exhibiting the signs of depression. Also there were higher suicide rate of the unemployed engaged in direct labor with educational background lower than college level related to the pessimism regarding the family living cost. We were able to determine the recent increase in the suicidal tendency of the educated people higher than the college level and the retired people with depression caused by the sudden change in social status. Overall there are several reasons for suicide, however, in most cases the signs of depression were exhibited until the final suicide, which tells us the serious psychological problem of suicide. Assuming that the current development of suicide will continue in future, the result of this study will guide the corresponding social policies, be utilized in preparing the insurance or management at the national level dealing with the real social problems that are not just a conflict of an individual, but could spread like a fad and become much bigger than the present by the continuous support at the environmental, social and political levels, and be utilized as the basic data to establish the research plan.