Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
Volume 107, Issue 10 , Pages 811-815, October 2008

Charcoal Burning and Maternal Filicide-Suicide Trends in Taiwan: The Impact of Accessibility of Lethal Methods

  • Yi-Ju Pan

      Affiliations

    • Taiwan Suicide Prevention Center, Department of Health, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Ming-Been Lee

      Affiliations

    • Taiwan Suicide Prevention Center, Department of Health, Taiwan
    • Departments of Psychiatry and Social Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence to: Dr Ming-Been Lee, Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital, 7 Chung-Shan South Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan

Received 22 April 2008; received in revised form 26 May 2008; accepted 9 June 2008.

Article Outline

Charcoal burning has emerged as a novel suicide method in Taiwan and its impact on maternal filicide-suicide (MFS) remains unexplored. Using official national mortality data and reports of MFS cases from electronic newspaper archives, the authors aimed to examine whether the newly available charcoal burning was associated with an increase in MFS incidents during the period from 1999 to 2006. The trends for changes in age/gender/method-specific suicide rates and MFS incidence were analyzed and then correlated with each other. The results indicated that charcoal burning was the leading method of filicide in reported MFS incidents. The increase in MFS incidents paralleled that of charcoal burning-specific suicide rates in females aged 25–44 years, while suicide rates by other methods did not change significantly. Easy accessibility and perceived painlessness as conveyed by the media might account for the choices of charcoal burning for MFS. Restricting access to charcoal burning should therefore be prioritized for further prevention strategies.

Key Words:  charcoal , maternal behavior , murder , preventive measures , suicide

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PII: S0929-6646(08)60195-3

doi:10.1016/S0929-6646(08)60195-3

Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
Volume 107, Issue 10 , Pages 811-815, October 2008

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