Suicide in rural New South Wales: comparison with metropolitan experience

Our study of coroners' records in a country region of New South Wales revealed major differences between rural and metropolitan suicide patterns. While the crude suicide rates were lower in the country than in the city, sex and age specific rates showed unexpected anomalies, the principal one being that women aged 50 to 64 years in the New England region were more than twice as likely to commit suicide as their counterparts throughout the State. This ratio is the inverse of that predicted by findings in Victoria and Europe. The study suggests that two major factors contributing to the unexpectedly high suicide rate for this section of the community were social isolation and the use of prescribed medications.