• Yuta Aoki, Megumi Okada, Ryota Inokuchi, Akinori Matsumoto, Yoshibumi Kumada, Hideyuki Yokoyama, Tokiya Ishida, Itaru Saito, Humihito Ito, Hajime Sato, Jun Tomio, Kazuaki Shinohara, and Graham Thornicroft.
• Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan, you_your_yuta@hotmail.com.
• Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2014 Dec 1; 49 (12): 1911-8.

PurposeThe aim of this study is to assess whether the risk or types of suicide change in Fukushima in the aftermath of a series of disaster, including earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in March 2011.MethodThe clinical records of all patients visited to the medical centre near the nuclear plant from 1 year before to 1 year after the disaster were reviewed (n = 981). Patients with non-fatal suicide attempt were divided into two categories depending on their method of suicide attempt. Standardised mortality ratios were calculated to adjust for changes in demographic profiles.ResultsThe risk of non-fatal suicide attempts using high-mortality methods was significantly higher for 4 months, by three to four times after the series of disasters, and then decreased. There was no significant increase of non-fatal suicide attempts using low-mortality methods after the disaster.ConclusionsAfter such a disaster, immediate psychiatric support may be required because of the increased risk of non-fatal suicide attempts in the immediate aftermath.

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