In perhaps one of the strangest studies in recent years, Austrian researchers have linked suicide with sunshine.
What?
Yes, in examining nearly 70,000 suicide cases over the course of 40 years, a team of researchers in Austria have found two very distinct connections between sunny days and suicide rates. In brief: sunshine results in suicide; but also, after two straight weeks of sunshine, suicide rates begin to level off or drop.
Indeed it is an interesting report, which the team published in the Sept 10 issue of JAMA Psychiatry. Obviously there is no way to directly relate sunshine and suicide so they had to do a little digging to understand the link. One theory suggests that sunshine plays a critical role in boosting serotonin, which is a chemical in the brain that helps to regulate mood, explains Dr. Benjamin Vyssoki (and his team) at the Medical University of Vienna.
As a matter of fact, many studies seem to suggest that suicide rates follow a seasonal pattern in several countries-the United States included-but the pattern is actually counterintuitive. As it turns out, while winter generally results in more feelings of depression it is the following season of spring when people seem to act on those impulses.
With knowledge of this very strange and very unique trend, the team went out to investigate. They looked at 69,462 confirmed suicides in Austria between the years of 1970 and 2010. They correlated this against local meteorological data to calculate an average number of sunny days within the 40 year period.
Indeed, they found two things. Within the first 10 of a stretch of sunny days the suicide rate peaked. But after 14 days the rates went down again.
They also found that the short term rate was more common among women and the long term rate more common among men.
