Irish suicides among EU highest

THE growing rate of people taking their own lives in Ireland has contributed towards a general international spike in suicide deaths, with the recession being blamed.

New international research published in medical journal The Lancet yesterday shows that Ireland, Greece and Latvia saw the most dramatic rises in suicides, with the increases coinciding with the economic collapse.

The findings are based on a preliminary assessment based on data on mortality in several European countries for 2009, combined with complete data for the period 2000–09 — currently only available for 10 of the 27 EU countries: six in the pre-2004 EU, including Ireland, and four in the post-2004 EU.