Suicide in a rural Irish population

As part of a general survey of psychiatric morbidity in a newly created community based rural psychiatric service, data was collected on suicide from the relevant Coroners for the year January 1989-December 1989. A total of 11 suicides were discovered for a population of 60,735 giving a suicide rate of 18.04/100,000. The official figure for the same period is 252 deaths due to suicide or 7.1/100,000. The implications of these findings are discussed.