Search

Background: Increasing rail transportation requires appropriate railway suicide preventive measures. Aims: The investigation of trends in railway suicide during 2008-2018, a period in which preventive measures were taken by Dutch railway infrastructure manager ProRail. Methods: Generalized linear regression models for railway suicide were developed for the period 1970-2007 with general suicide rate, railway traffic intensity, and a combination of these variables as regressors. Subsequently, the best-fitting model was used to investigate trends in railway suicide after 2007 by comparing in retrospect observed values with the expected outcomes of the regression model. Results: An adequate regression model for railway suicide was obtained using both general suicide rate and railway traffic intensity as regressors. Based on this model, while national suicide mortality and railway traffic increased, a distinct relative decline in railway suicides was found from 2012 onward. Conclusions: This decline of railway suicides in the Netherlands may indicate that preventive measures taken by ProRail were effective and prevented around 85 railway suicides annually, a reduction of 30%.

More suicidal ideation and higher rates of attempted suicide are found in Turkish people when compared with the general population in Europe. Acculturation processes and related distress may explain an elevated risk of suicide. The current study investigates the association between acculturation and suicidal ideation among Turkish migrants in the Netherlands. The mediating effect of hopelessness and moderating effect of secure attachment are also examined. A total of 185 Turkish migrants living in the Netherlands were recruited through social media and through liaison with community groups. They completed an online survey including validated measures of suicidal ideation, hopelessness, acculturation and attachment style. Mediation and moderation analyses were tested using bootstrapping. Higher participation was associated with less hopelessness and less suicidal ideation. Greater maintenance of one's ethnic culture was associated with higher hopelessness and higher suicidal ideation. Greater participation was associated with less suicidal ideation particularly amongst those with less secure attachment styles. Turkish migrants who participate in the host culture may have a lower risk of developing suicidal thinking. Participation may protect against suicidal thinking, particularly among those with less secure attachment styles.

Background: Suicidality could be associated with specific combinations of biological, social and psychological factors. Therefore, depressive episodes with suicidal ideation could be different from depressive episodes without suicidal ideation in terms of latent variable structures. Methods: In this study we compared latent variable structures between suicidal and non-suicidal depressed patients using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), following a measurement invariance test procedure. Patients (N = 919) suffering from major depressive disorder were selected from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA) and split into a group that showed no symptoms of suicidal ideation (non-SI; N = 691) and a suicidal ideation (SI) group that had one or more symptoms of suicidal ideation (N = 228). Depression and anxiety symptoms were measured using the short form of the Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire (MASQ-D30). Results: CFA implied a difference in latent variable structures between the non-SI sample (CFI 0.957; RMSEA 0.041) and the SI sample (CFI 0.900; RMSEA 0.056). Subsequent multiple-group CFA showed violations of measurement invariance. The General distress and Anhedonic depression subscales were best indicated by hopelessness and lack of optimism in the SI sample and by dissatisfaction and not feeling lively in the non-SI sample. Overall, the SI sample had higher scores and lower inter-item correlations on the Anhedonic depression items. Limitations: We have included very mild cases of suicidal ideation in our SI sample. Conclusions: On a latent variable level, depression with suicidal ideation differs from depression without suicidal ideation. Results encourage further research into the symptom structure of depression among suicidal patients.