Aesquire.180
net.suicide
utzoo!decvax!duke!chico!esquire!psl
Sat Dec 26 17:38:46 1981
Suicide Season
Interviewed on the NPR radio new show "All Things Considered",
clinical psychologist Rachel Allman (Harvard Med. School) who has
been researching the statistics supporting the "Holiday Blues"
stated that it's a myth. Statistics apparently show that suicides
peak in April and that psychiatric hospital admissions peak in mid summer.
Asked where the Holiday Blues myth originated she said that the notion
first appeared in psychiatric journals in the 40's and 50's and was espoused
by the media. Since that time psychiatrists and the media have been bolstering
each other's belief in the concept. She indicated that she still gets
arguments from clinicians and others over this idea, but the only evidence
they can ever give is "personal experiance". She suggests that these people
may see any depression around the holiday season in their (already) depressed
patients as proof of the holiday blues and any depression at other times
(e.g. April) as "the exception that proves the rule".
[This is all very much paraphrased by me since I just heard it on the radio
and don't take shorthand -- for that matter I can barely read my normal, slow
handwriting.]
This particular episode of "All Things Considered" is rebroadcast on WNYC AM
(83) on Sunday evening at 8:30, (I think).
Peter Langston
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