One person commits suicide every 40 seconds: WHO

One person commits suicide every 40 seconds, an avoidable tragedy that fails to grab attention because of taboos and stigma, a UN report said Sept. 4.
      
In a study released three weeks after the apparent suicide of Hollywood great Robin Williams, the World Health Organization also warned that media reporting of suicide details raises the risk of copycat behaviour.
      
"Every suicide is a tragedy. It is estimated that over 800 000 people die by suicide and that there are many suicide attempts for each death," said WHO chief Margaret Chan in the landmark report capping a decade of research.
      
"The impact on families, friends and communities is devastating and far-reaching, even long after persons dear to them have taken their own lives," she added.
      
WHO, which called suicide a major public health problem that must be confronted and stemmed, studied 172 countries to produce the report.
      
It said that in 2012 high-income countries had a slightly higher suicide rate -- 12.7 per 100,000 people, versus 11.2 in low- and middle-income nations.
      
But given the latter category's far higher population, they accounted for three-quarters of the global total.
      
Southeast Asia -- which in WHO-speak includes countries such as North Korea, India, Indonesia and Nepal -- made up over a third of the annual.
      
Suicides in high-income countries, meanwhile, accounted for around a quarter of the global figure.
      
The most frequently-used methods globally are pesticide poisoning, hanging and firearms, but jumping from buildings is a common method in highly urbanised areas in Asia.
     
WHO cautioned that suicide figures are often sketchy, with less than half of...