Hungarian Suicide Prevention Project
For most of the last century, Hungary has had the highest suicide rate in the world, with a current rate of about 32 suicides per 100,000 persons annually -- almost three times higher than that of the United States. In 2000, AFSP scientists played a leadership role in initiating a suicide prevention intervention that aimed to train general practitioners, in consultation with psychiatrists, to identify and treat depressed patients. The project focused on one Hungarian region, Kiskunhalas, where the suicide rate was two-thirds higher than that of Hungary as a whole.
After five years, results show that annual suicide rate decreased significantly in the targeted region, compared to a control region with a comparably high suicide rate and to Hungary as a whole. The targeted region also showed a greater increase in the use of antidepressant treatment than did the control region, especially among females. Correspondingly, declines in suicide rates were most pronounced among women.
Psychological autopsies have been conducted on the suicide deaths that have occurred in the years since the project was initiated, and are providing critical information about the suicides that the project has not been able to prevent. A large proportion of these suicides have occurred among male alcoholics who do not visit their general practitioners.
The full results of the Hungarian intervention study were recently published in the Archives of General Psychiatry in a paper titled "A Suicide Prevention Program in a Very High Suicide Rate Region." The paper's authors are Drs. Katalin Szanto, Sandor Kalmar, Herbert Hendin, Zoltan Rihmer and J. John Mann.
The Hungarian project was funded by the Open Society Institute and by Janssen Pharmaceutica Inc. through a grant from the King Badouin Foundation United States.
