Author Interviews, Mental Health Research / 25.08.2016
Deaths from Self-Injury Increase 65% Over 15 Year Period
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ian Rockett, PhD, MPH, FACE
Professor, Department of Epidemiology
School of Public Health
West Virginia University
Morgantown, WV
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Self-injury deaths in the United States are seriously underestimated because they are officially limited to registered suicides, and exclude non-suicide deaths from drug self-intoxication. Suicides themselves are undercounted due primarily to under-resourcing of medical examiner and coroner offices and associated challenges in detecting drug suicides. Although most drug-intoxication deaths involve deliberate behaviors that markedly elevate risk of premature death, they are formally classified, but mischaracterized, as “accidents” on death certificates. Representing self-injury mortality (SIM) as a combination of registered suicides and estimated deaths from drug self-intoxication (DDSI), this study compared its national trends and patterns with those of 3 proximally ranked top 10 causes of death.
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