Nationwide study finds US newspaper reporting of suicide linked with some teenage suicide clusters

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-05/tl-tlp042814.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 1-May-2014

Contact: Dr. Madelyn S Gould
The Lancet
The Lancet Psychiatry: Nationwide study finds US newspaper reporting of suicide linked with some teenage suicide clusters

Heightened newspaper coverage after a suicide might have a significant impact on the initiation of some teenage suicide clusters, according to new research published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal.

The study reveals that the content of media reports is also important, with more prominent stories (ie, published on the front page) and those that describe the suicide in considerable detail more likely to be associated with so-called copycat suicides.

"Our findings indicate that the more sensational the coverage of the suicides, and the more details the story provides, then the more likely there are to be more suicides", explains lead author Dr Madelyn Gould from the New York State Psychiatric Institute in the USA.*

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