Suicide rises under conservative rule (Australia)

www.nature.com ^ | September 20, 2002 | KENDALL POWELL

[CubicleGuy]

A nation's suicide rate increases under right-wing governments according two studies that have looked at Australia and Britain over the past century.

Alienation and isolation may run higher in societies driven by competitive market forces, suggest the teams behind the findings. Left-wing rule, focusing more on equality, might put people under less pressure.

Governments should consider their role in public health beyond spending, says social scientist Mary Shaw of the University of Bristol, UK. "We need to look not just at the immediate biomedical factors affecting health, but also how we organize society," she says.

In New South Wales, Australia, suicides soared when federal and state governments were Conservative, a team at the University of Sydney has found. They were lowest when the Labour Party ruled both.

The researchers accounted for the effects of drought, both world wars, and the availability of sedatives. Even so, men and women were 17 and 40 per cent more likely to take their own lives, respectively, with conservatives in power.

Women may be more sensitive to social change, says Shaw. She and her colleagues carried out a less extensive analysis for Britain that gave "uncannily similar" results.

In total, there were 35,000 extra British suicides under the Conservatives. "One for every day of the century, or two for every day that the Conservatives ruled," Shaw points out.

The results are unsurprising, says Cary Cooper, a psychologist at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK. Poorer social support and higher job insecurity may drive more to suicide under conservative regimes, he says.

"However," Cooper adds, "political parties now are not so distinct." He predicts that with the political gulf between parties narrowing, the suicide gap "will close quite dramatically in the next 50 years".

[CubicleGuy]

Fortunately, since the Republican and Democrat parties are coming to resemble each other so closely, we can look forward to a similarly reduced risk under "Republican" administrations. ;-)

It's also good to know that Gary Cooper is still with us after all.

[CubicleGuy]

Oops: that's Cary Cooper. My bad! ;-)

[Happygal]

says social scientist Mary Shaw of the University of Bristol, UK

Will someone please tell this woman, being a Bristolian in itself is enough to make you suicidal ;-)

[CubicleGuy]

When the rest of the civilized world are done with blowing each other up, Australia may just be remote enough to survive. It's good to be "down under"! (Wish I was!)

[Blood of Tyrants]

And the MURDER/ASSAULT/ARMED ROBBERY rates under liberal rule go UP. Way, way, way up. Hyde Park is now one of he most dangerous public places in the industrialized countries.

[The Old Hoosier]

This is absolutely silly. Has anyone considered the possibility that there is no causal connection between the two? Or that maybe the SAME factors that cause right-wing governments to come to power cause people to be depressed, not that the one causes the other? Factors like, for example, an economic downturn caused by a left-wing government?

[CubicleGuy]

Of course it's silly. That's one of the reasons I posted the story.

[sackofcatfood]

Assuming the socialists didn't cook the books, it's worth pointing out that there have been innumerable medical advances since the last time the UK had a honestly conservative government. I don't know about the Aussies.

Also, there's a difference between right-wing and conservative, and Europeans define conservative and liberal differently than overhere.

You can be there's a reason this didn't include statistics for America.

Left-wing governments that should have been included in the study: Pol Pot, Castro, Stalin, Mao Tse-tung. . .