Charcoal-burning suicide in post-transition Hong Kong

Charcoal-burning, a new suicide method, emerged in Hong Kong during the latest economic recession. Within 2 months charcoal-burning had become the third most common suicide method. To examine the characteristics of suicides by charcoal-burning, and to delineate the pathways linking macro-level econo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of psychiatry 2005-01, Vol.186 (1), p.67-73
Main Authors: Chan, Kathy P. M., Yip, Paul S. F., Au, Jade, Lee, Dominic T. S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air Pollution, Indoor - adverse effects
Anthropology, Cultural
Burning
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning - epidemiology
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning - ethnology
Case-Control Studies
Charcoal
Charcoal burning
China
China - ethnology
Ethnography
Gambling
Gender
Hong Kong
Hong Kong - epidemiology
Humans
Incidence
Loans
Mental disorders
Middle age
Political economy
Politics
Psychiatry
Qualitative research
Recessions
Retrospective Studies
Sociodemographics
Socioeconomic Factors
Subjective experiences
Suicide
Suicide - ethnology
Suicides & suicide attempts
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Summary:Charcoal-burning, a new suicide method, emerged in Hong Kong during the latest economic recession. Within 2 months charcoal-burning had become the third most common suicide method. To examine the characteristics of suicides by charcoal-burning, and to delineate the pathways linking macro-level economic and social changes with the subjective experiences of those surviving a charcoal-burning suicide attempt. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. In the coroner's records study, the first 160 cases of suicide by charcoal-burning were compared with a control group. In the ethnographic enquiry, we interviewed 25 consecutive informants who had survived serious suicide attempt using charcoal-burning. People who completed suicide by the charcoal-burning method were more likely to have been economically active and physically healthy, and were less likely to have had pre-existing mental illness. Charcoal-burning suicide was associated with overindebtedness. Media reports were pivotal in linking overindebtedness and financial troubles with charcoal-burning. The political economy of suicide by charcoal-burning illustrated how historical, socio-economic and cultural forces shaped the lived experience that preceded suicide.
ISSN:0007-1250
1472-1465
DOI:10.1192/bjp.186.1.67