Madam, — The Irish Times/Behaviour Attitudes poll on men may have provided insight into the problem of young male suicide. One of the main findings of your survey was: "Almost two-thirds (63 per cent) say they are extremely or very concerned about having enough money to pay for day-to-day expenses. This level of worry is highest among men aged 25 to 44."
This is also the age-group with the anomalously high suicide rate that so far has defied explanation. We should perhaps look at possible causes of suicide other than depression. If suicide is an irrational act, then it is surely the domain of the psychologists and psychiatrists, as is currently the case.
However, if suicide in some instances were to be a "rational" act, albeit a desperate one, undertaken by a person in their normal state of mind, then perhaps there is a need for a different approach to be incorporated into suicide-prevention strategy.
A study in 1975 by two Princeton economists, Hammermesh and Soss, identified economic factors as underlying a significant proportion of suicides worldwide, but this work seems not to have been accepted by mental health professionals, who tend to be prominent in anti-suicide organisations.
Two years ago it was reported that hundreds of cotton farmers in the Maharashtra province of central India had committed suicide because of crop failure and the resulting bankruptcy. While many may have been depressed - a natural consequence of bankruptcy - it seems to me that the fear of bankruptcy was the "cause" of the suicide and not the depression, which is arguably a "symptom". This is borne out by the fact that when the Indian state offered the bereaved families financial assistance, the rate of suicide increased, as the breadwinners now knew that their families would be provided for.
Many bereaved families have spoken of their inability to comprehend how an apparently cheerful and outgoing person could suddenly take his own life in a planned way without giving any warning.
Could it be that, rather than irrational acts caused by a mixture of depression, drugs and alcohol, as commonly portrayed by the medical profession, many such decisions are rational acts with an underlying economic cause, such as your survey has revealed? - Yours, etc,
GEORGE REYNOLDS, Annamoe, Co Wicklow.