Beneficial and harmful effects of reducing public suicide stigma

Beneficial and harmful effects of reducing public suicide stigma

Purpose Over time and within different cultures, the societal judgement of suicide varies greatly. During antiquity, suicide was often viewed neutral or even glorifying; however even then philosophers like Socrates and Plato partially viewed suicide as a moral crime. By the 5th century suicide was increasingly devalued and often criminalized throughout the western world. Until today, suicide remains a taboo topic in many countries including Germany and scholars have argued that public suicide could increase suicide risk and hinder suicide prevention. However, reducing public suicide stigma could have negative side effects, such as normalizing suicide and therefore increase suicide rates.

Methods This talk will summarize current evidence regarding beneficial and harmful effects of reducing public suicide stigma. It will also present results of a web-based RCT to determine the efficacy of four types of interventions in reducing public suicide stigma as well as their potential beneficial and harmful side effects.

Results Recent studies found public suicide stigma to hinder the implementation of programs to prevent suicide and reduce help-seeking for suicidality. Additionally, suicide stigma can increase distress and suicidality among persons who experienced suicidality and their relatives. However, in several cross-national investigations approving or liberal cultural attitudes about suicide were associated with increased national suicide rates.

Conclusions With regard to suicide rates, public suicide stigma could have both beneficial and harmful effects. Research on single and combined effects of different aspects of public suicide stigma on individual suicide risk and national suicide rates is greatly needed.

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Artikel online veröffentlicht:
02. September 2021