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Charcoal-burning suicide in post-transition Hong Kong

Department of Psychiatry, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Kwai Chung Hospital, Hong Kong

Paul S. F. Yip, PhD

Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, and Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, University of Hong Kong

Jade Au, MPhil

HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, University of Hong Kong

Dominic T. S. Lee, MRCPsych, MD

Department of Psychiatry, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, and Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Correspondence: Dr Paul S. F. Yip, HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Fax: +852 2549 7161; e-mail: sfpyip{at}hku.hk

Declaration of interest None.

Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

Background Charcoal-burning, a new suicide method, emerged in Hong Kong during the latest economic recession. Within 2 months charcoal-burning had become the third most common suicide method.

Aims To examine the characteristics of suicides by charcoal-burning, and to delineate the pathways linking macro-level economic and social changes with the subjective experiences of those surviving a charcoal-burning suicide attempt.

Method Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. In the coroner’s records study, the first 160 cases of suicide by charcoal-burning were compared with a control group. In the ethnographic enquiry, we interviewed 25 consecutive informants who had survived serious suicide attempt using charcoal-burning.

Results People who completed suicide by the charcoal-burning method were more likely to have been economically active and physically healthy, and were less likely to have had pre-existing mental illness. Charcoal-burning suicide was associated with overindebtedness. Media reports were pivotal in linking overindebtedness and financial troubles with charcoal-burning.

Conclusions The political economy of suicide by charcoal-burning illustrated how historical, socio-economic and cultural forces shaped the lived experience that preceded suicide.

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