A retrospective analysis of suicides occurred in Genova during a 5-year period (2006-2010) and review of the literature

The authors analyse the suicidal phenomenon on the basis of the records collected at the Departmental Section of Legal Medicine, University of Genova, in the five-year period 2006-2010. Several variables (gender, age, mode, location and season of suicide) have been compared not only with previous researches performed in the same area but also with data from the international literature. It has also sought to identify possible risk factors, both psychosocial and biological, if existing, as well as appropriate strategies to reduce such a dramatic phenomenon that appears universally increasing. The period has been chosen in order to obtain data concerning the years immediately prior to the beginning of the economic crisis (started in 2008) perception. Accordingly, a similar study, which will conclude in 2015, is currently in progress and will cover the period 2011-2015 to assess whether the economic crisis has actually determined an increase of the suicidal phenomenon; the latter, indeed, seems to be supported by many sociologists without a scientific validity and statistical relevance.