Overall, 1,865 suicides occurred in Northern
Ireland in the period 2000-2008, 207 per year,
giving a general population annual suicide
rate of 13.9 per 100,000 people. This rate is
higher than in the United Kingdom as a whole,
though lower than in Scotland. The suicide
rate in Northern Ireland rose in the later part of
the report period, in contrast to the rest of the
United Kingdom. This period includes the first
two years after the publication of the Protect Life
Suicide Prevention Strategy, though it is too early
to comment on the effectiveness of the Strategy.
We identified 142 homicide convictions during
2000-2008, 16 per year, though this is likely to
be an underestimate. The equivalent annual
homicide rate is 10.6 per million people, similar
to the rate in England and Wales but lower than
the rate in Scotland. Alcohol and drug misuse High rates of substance misuse and dependence run through this report and, as we rely on information known to clinicians, our figures are likely to underestimate the problem. Alcohol misuse, in particular, was a common feature of patient suicide (60%), and appears to have become more common. Alcohol dependence was the most common clinical diagnosis (52%) in patients convicted of homicide and, in homicide generally, alcohol misuse was a more common feature in Northern Ireland than in the other UK countries. Dual diagnosis (severe mental illness and alcohol or drug misuse) was found in 1 in 4 patient suicides. Clinicians regarded better services for dual diagnosis as an important step towards reducing risk.
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